The Man with the Iron Mask (English verse)
by Asterous-Poison
Summary: "Tell me a story, Thor. Tell me again of the news of Yggdrasil and of the Worlds." Definitely AU.
1. Prologue : Tell me a Story

**Prologue : Tell me a Story**

* * *

"So ? How do I look like ?"

Thor doesn't answer right away. He observes every details of this new mask Loki seems so proud of. And like all those which hid away from his gaze the green eyes of his brother, Thor hates this mask with all his might.

"You look like Loki."

Thor always answers this way. This is a lie. That face covered with painted metal has nothing to do with his brother. But he can't think of answering anything else. He would like to tell him that this mask is even more hideous than the last one, that he doesn't understand why Loki persists in hiding his face behind those heaps of scrap, nails and leather, that he is awful with that on. But he doesn't want to pain Loki. Or make him angry. Thor is able to see him just because Loki accepts it. He doesn't want to lose this privilege just like his Father and his Mother did. Just like all the people of Asgard did.

"You always say that" Loki whispers.

Even his very voice is deformed by that cursed mask. Thor dreams of ripping it from Loki's face and throwing it in the hearth of the fireplace.

"Because there is nothing else to say."

Slowly, the mask nods thoughtfully. Thor knows that Loki knows. But neither of them will change their stance. Loki turns his back on him and heads toward the large window that ornaments the end of his room. He sets down on it a gloved hand and lets his head rest on the pane. A sharp noise is produced when the metal and the glass collide, and that makes a shiver of rage runs along Thor's spine. Thor stays where he is, sited on the end of Loki's bed. The stifled voice of his brother resonates again through the metal.

"Tell me a story, Thor. Tell me again of the news of Yggdrasil and of the Worlds."

And Thor does tell him. Just like every time. He recounts for him the news of the Kingdom, the new gossips, his last adventures with the Warriors Three, his last achievements, what he saw during his travels in the other Worlds. He describes him the landscapes, the trees, the flowers, the weeds, the creatures. He even tries to describe the smells, the flavours, his feelings and those of his comrades. He details him Sif's smile, her grace, her strength. He talks about the words and the new decrees taken by Odin, remembers him the gentleness of Frigga. He tells Loki everything, without leaving out anything, without concealing anything from him.

Loki doesn't turn over but he does listen silently, intently. He is far, so far from here. Thor can't see that, but his eyes are wide open and shed bitter tears while he looks, through Thor's tales, the sceneries of Alfaheim, Midgard or Nidavellir. But when Thor hasn't anything left to recount, Loki is back in his chambers so richly decorated that it hurts his eyes and makes him nauseous. He is no fool. He never was. He is in a cage, a golden cage that he made build himself and from which he never will be able to escape.

And so Loki cries again and he hates. But Thor doesn't see it. That's why Thor loathes that mask, and all its predecessors. Because he can't see when Loki suffers, expect when he tells him so. But Loki never shown his weaknesses willingly, and will never do so. So Thor can't know when his brother is in need of help and he never knows if he brings him enough comfort or in time. That abject mask of iron doesn't allow it. One day, he will break the bolt and cut the leather thongs that hold the mask on the face of his brother and he will free him. He swears it.

But alas, that day has not come yet.


	2. Chapter 1 : Once Upon a Time

Hello everyone ! And here a new chapter (and so much more to write…) !

Thanks to everyone who sent me little message to give me their reviews, it really made me happy (and blush a little too !). Don't hesitate to give me more reviews and to tell me if you see orthographic mistakes (I'm French so English is not my native language…) so I can correct them and improve myself !

For the credits, all the present characters belong to Marvel (hail Marvel then !)

Bonne lecture ! Good reading !

* * *

**Chapter 1 : Once Upon a Time**

* * *

When Thor and Loki were just children, Loki didn't wear any mask and didn't live hidden away in his room. He didn't spare his time between the study of books out of age, the contemplation of an inaccessible outside through his window and the making of monstrous masks.

Truth to be told, Thor and Loki were absolutely alike in their personality. The two of them ran laughing in the long corridors of the Palace, played in the vast gardens of Frigga and made up a thousand and one subterfuges to escape the supervision of their nurses and go to the city. There, they marveled at everything, preyed on the fruits and pastry that merchants gave them because of their belonging of the Royal Family without any qualm and met other children of their age who dragged them in their games.

Then, when the sky turned red with the sunset, they came back to the Palace and pretended that they never went away. And they laughed and laughed again at the crestfallen faces of their nurses and at the weary sights of their Mother. So she pretended to scold them for their bad behavior and sent them to their bed. And when neither of them could find the sleep, she came to them, sat on the edge of the bed, let them nestle in her arms and told them tales from the past. Each time that the name ''Frost Giant" was quoted in her stories, Loki cuddled up a little more against her while Thor swore to slay them all, without any exception, to prevent them to make any more harm. Frigga looked a little troubled at that, but soon she carried up with her tales and only stopped when her two children were sound asleep.

As they grew up, the two brothers distinguished themselves from the other. Loki seemed to follow the path of the scholars while Thor was destined to become a strong and brave warrior. The first discovered himself as a fine sorcerer when the other showed outstanding skills for combat. Each one soon proved to be the bests in their areas and one was the opposite and yet complementary of the other. Loki, calm and collected, cooled down Thor's zeal and kept him from doing foolish things. For his part, Thor, adventurous and cheerful, encouraged Loki to open himself to the others and move from the library. And both of them were utterly satisfied of that.

But that Golden Age ended.

It was a summer day among so many others in Asgard. That morning, Loki complained about feeling unwell and fevered. Thor had to use all his energy to make him get up from his bed, and even more to persuade him to come hunting with their friends.

"Nice try, Loki ! But I recall you promising me a hunt and none of your tricks will force me to give it up ! A promise is a promise !"

During all the day, Loki was lagging behind. He was the center of all Thor's teasing that day. Loki tried to tell his brother that he wasn't faking it, that he really was ill and that if, at least, they were hunting on a flat ground he may go faster.

When Thor scoffed at him, asking him what beast would let itself trap if it could see the hunters, Loki told him that the sun was burning his skin and that it would preferable to wait night for hunting. But Thor's only reply was to stop trying to avoid the hunt. Loki, for all the respect Thor had for him, was famous in all the Nine Realms for his lies.

After a moment, as they are climbing the Mountain of Crimsons Trees Loki begged Thor for a break and Thor sighed.

"Truly brother, you spend too much time with your books ! Here you are, unable to climb the littlest slope without seeing yourself at Death's Door ! That's not worthy of a Prince of Asgard !"

"But… Thor… I'm… really… not… well…" Loki panted, his hands on his knees.

"It's because you always stays secluded in that damn library ! You are getting lazy brother ! Fresh air and exercise, that's what you really need ! Come on, Loki ! Let us go !"

So Loki fell silent and did his best to follow his brother without complaining again.

His best wasn't good enough though. Just when the Sun reached its zenith and Thor was aiming an arrow at a splendid deer, a rough fit a coughing, followed by a pathetic moan, echoed in the mountain, making the deer flee. That time, Thor got angry. He had tolerated Loki's bad will far too long for his own patience. His face red with anger, he turned to his brother, ready to yell at him to stop his little games. But he did not yell at Loki. Because Loki had fallen on the earth. And because Loki's body was convulsing.

"LOKI !"

Fast as thunder, Thor rushed to his brother's side, hoping that it was just another trick and that Loki would get back on his feet, laughing at his panicked face. But Loki did not rise. His hands gripped Thor's arms with the strength of despair and Thor saw Loki's skin crack and melt away. He saw blue crawl on his brother's body and his eyes turn red with blood. He felt the cold burn his own skin and he backed away with surprise, trying to escape those deadly cold hands.

"What…?! What's going on ?! Loki !"

Loki made a strangled noise when rock-like lines appeared on his body. Thor kneeled down again where his brother lied. He tried to hold him still but dared not touch him, afraid of hurting him and, to his shame, to hurt himself with the horrid blue skin. After seconds that lasted like hours, spasms stopped and red eyes deprived of pupils looked weakly for Thor's.

" Thor… I am… cold…" Loki rasped with a shaky voice.

Then his eyes rolled and he stopped moving completely. So, panicked, hands shaking and eyes watering without succeeding on shedding tears, Thor took Loki in his arms, doing his best to ignore the burns from the ice-cold blue skin, and rushed to the Palace.


	3. Chapter 2 : What was Worst

Hello again ! Here's a very short chapter but don't worry, the next is on its way ! Read and review please ! ^o^

Crédits : Marvel is still the lucky owner of the characters cited here !

* * *

**Chapter 2 : What was Worst.**

* * *

He thought that his Mother's tears would be the worst. Worst than the horrified looks of the people when they saw their two Princes, one disheveled, panting, with tears flowing down on his face and shoulders covered with burns, and the other, dead-still and the body covered with a stone-like blue skin. Worst than the panicked voice of his Father when he called upon Eir to treat his son. Worst than when Odin took Loki in his arms, repressing a hiss of pain when the cold ate into his own skin, to take him in his rooms, far from Thor. Worst than the clumsy attempts of his personal maid of cheered him up while treating the burns of his shoulders. Worst than when he waited outside the room where Loki was treated, as he was forbidden to enter and see his brother.

He was wrong.

What was worst was seeing Loki unconscious, bare flesh, lying in a bath of ice, skin still blue, his breathing labored and wheezing, his chest linked up with the Casket of Ancient Winters with a glowing magical bond. What was worst was seeing his **Father**, of all people, crying while caressing with trembling hand the raven hair of his brother, soaked wet with iced water and sweat. What was worst was hearing Odin begging Loki for forgiveness. What was worst was not knowing what was happening and having no one able to tell him.

What was worst was that he couldn't do anything to help Loki and, for the first time in his entire life, Thor felt himself utterly useless.


	4. Chapter 3 : You Were not Born Asgardian

Hello everyone ! There it is the chapter for the week ! I think i twill be able to make up for the little nothing of last Sunday ! Good reading ! ^o^

Crédits : Marvel, Marvel, all Marvel ! ^o^

* * *

**Chapiter 3 : You Were not Born Asgardian, my Son.**

* * *

Eir said she had the illness in check, but half of Loki's face is still ravaged by it. It's like his skin had been torn-down before being sewed back on with shoddy material. **Blue** shoddy material. It is the same with his right hand. His eyes remain green though, even if the right one is now circled by blood-like red.

When Loki regains consciousness and sees what has become of his body, when he looks, horrified, at the stony blue skin of the Frost Giant that now crawls on him, he panics and screams until his voice turns raw. _It cannot be it cannot be it cannot be_. _It. Cannot. Be_.

Except it is.

When his Mother tries to approach and sooth him, he backs away and attempts to flee. But his knees are far too weak to support him and he collapses. He realizes that he cannot breathe, for his lungs seem to be made of fire. It is like he is burning alive. His skin itches and parts of it crack, only to reveal more blue under.

He doesn't understand what's happening to him. And that terrifies him. So he tries to get answers, even if his throat aches and his voice is gone. He looks at Odin with pleading, yet fierce eyes, for he knows that the All-Father surely knows _what by Hel is happening. _

Odin kneels down where his second son has fallen and, with shaky voice and blurred eye, begins his tales.

"You were not born Asgardian, my son." He makes a pause here, searching for his words hesitantly. "You are from Jotunheim."

At that, Thor jumps with a start and gapes in shock. His beloved brother ? One of those monsters ? Preposterous ! And yet, the blue skin, the strange patterns on it, the red eyes, the burning cold… He recognized them from the very start. But he thought, he hoped it was some kind of curse, casted from Jotunheim upon Odin's younger son, to make the one who once brought them on their heels suffer. He cannot believe that Loki is one of them. No, it can't be.

Loki, he, is very still. He waits for Odin to continue.

"You were born when the war was still raging between our two people. I found you, alone, abandoned to the winds' bites and to Death, because too meager to be thought worthy of living. And if you were born Jötunn, at the second my eyes fell on you I felt for you all the love a father can have for a son. So I took you away, far from the cold and from the hunger, and I raised you as one of mine. Only your Mother was let into the confidence. Even your own brother didn't know. Until today."

At that, Loki casts a brief glance at Thor. Seeing his brother's face, he knows that it is the truth. And he feels the anger fledge in his heart. Odin is still speaking though, so Loki brings his eyes back at him, even if part of his focus starts to crumble.

Odin explains him that Loki's magic was already here when he was but an infant. That as soon as Odin laid a hand on him, the blue disappeared to make him look like the one who was picking him up. To make him look like an Aesir. Odin admits, with some shame, he was at first relieved by that, for it was far easier to raise him as his own child under that hide. And so, he never told him, or anyone else, who he really was, fearing that Loki would be rejected and casted aside by people still resentful at the Frost Giants. He only meant to protect his son, nothing more.

So Loki grew up, convinced that he was an Aesir, that he was the second Prince of Asgard and rightful pretender to the Throne, just like Thor was. And his body never turned Jötunn again. But a lie, as big and perfected as it can be, never lasts. Even if he hadn't the look of a Frost Giant, Loki **was **Jötunn and could never change that. That is why Loki never felt the cold, even when storms were ragging outside. That is why the great heats of summer had always been trying for him. That was the cause of his illness.

There was a reason why Jötunns never tried to invade Asgard. Asgard's very own atmosphere was toxic for them, burning their insides until they turned into ashes. Loki's magic protected him as long as it could. But now, it couldn't anymore, for it was affected too by what was like poison for Loki. His body had stood it all, until it couldn't anymore and collapsed.

Asgard was killing the intruder, eating away his flesh from inside. And despite all Odin's powers and knowledge, despite Eir's healing talents and Idunn's golden apples, Loki was dying from it.

As Odin speaks and confesses himself, tears of guilt and pain start to run over his cheeks. He begs Loki to forgive him, because he is the one who forced him to live in a place that his body cannot withstand. Odin swears on his Ancestors' names that he'll find a way, that he'll use all his powers to heal Loki and allow him to be free of the pain, to live as long as he would have if he were truly Aesir. He swears on his remaining eye that he never wanted him to suffer and that he would give all it is in his possession to make things better. It's a pathetic and harrowing spectacle that the sight of Odin, Great Master of the Nine Realms, on his knees before his son and crying, crying, crying…

Loki does not cry. Odin's speech, promises and supplications are lost between the chaos of his thoughts and the pain of his burning lungs. He had heard him, but hadn't listened. All he knows is that he's not Loki of Asgard, son of Odin and Frigga and brother of Thor. He is a monster. One of those that made him shake and cry at night when he was a child. One of those that Thor swore to exterminate. And he will die in agonizing pains, burned alive by the very Realm he called home. Now that Thor knows that he is a Frost Giant, even a runt, will he slay him down, just like he swore to do ?

Loki's eyes fall on his hands. And when he sees that stone-like, alien and hideous skin that, he knows it, crawls on his right arm and devours half of his face, rage and hate fill his heart. Odin is not his Father, neither Frigga is his Mother. They lied to him. All his life is nothing but an odious lie. How can they expect him to believe them now when they say they are sorry ? How can they pretend understand his feelings and share his pains ? _How dare they ?_

Loki finds his strengths again and he gets up, forcing violently Odin far from him. Without saying a word, without even casting his once-parents a glance, he walks through the room with steady steps and clenched fists. He doesn't listen to Odin's desperate calls or Frigga's laments. He ignores the searing pain in his chest and flees (because regardless of how much he tries to deny it, he **is** fleeing) to his own rooms and double locks himself in.

But even the familiar hangings and beloved books cannot sooth him. It's quite the opposite. The room is full of shiny and precious objects, most of them dedicated to magic, all gifts given by his not-family. Loki rages and hates more. Those objects are only here to remind him who he really is. They all show him how hideous he is now. What he has lost. So, with methodic diligence and cold anger, he scatters each mirror, each surface susceptible to cast his reflection. Then he shatters the embossed furniture and burns down the delicate ornaments. All sources of light are extinguished. He destroys everything he can lay his eyes upon.

While ripping the Odin's banner off the wall, his right hand slips and scrapes itself on a twisted piece of metal. The blood runs red from the wound. Loki looks at it, fascinated and oddly relieved. His blood is not blue. Maybe it's not too late ? Maybe if he tears away the skin, it will heal back to normal ? After all, snakes can shed their skin whenever they want to, can't they ? So Loki digs his nails on his right wrist and pulls. He rips off that hideous skin until his forearm is covered with red. Until the pain of his right hand outmatches the one on his heart. He looks at the damaged he has done to himself and to his room and laughs, before starting to tear apart the banner again.

Finally, when everything is dark and laying waste, only at that moment Loki lets himself drop on the floor and cries.


	5. Chapter 4 : Renewed Oath

Hello everyone ! After a long week of delay, I finally came down with this chapter (I think that from now I won't be able to update this fic twice a week… sorry… TvT) ! This one gave me a very hard time (believe it or not, Thor is more difficult to write than Loki… I don't understand… Loki is the one supposed to be complex and paradoxical and all…). But well ! Thanks again for your support and your patience ! ^o^

Bonne lecture ! ^o^

Credits : it didn't change between now and the last time, Marvel is still the only and happy owner of the characters cited.

* * *

**Chapter 4 : Renewed Oath.**

* * *

Thor stays where he is, numb and dumb, not knowing what to do or what to say, as his Father is confessing himself to Loki. He sees his brother's eyes grow wide and fill with cold harsh anger while Odin, on his knees before him, is crying without ever ceasing to beg Loki's forgiveness. Frigga is sobbing silently, her delicate hands pressed over her heart. She wanted to hug her son but feared a new reject from him, so she doesn'y dare to approach him.

Thor's mind is nothing but sheer Chaos. He feels light-headed and as Odin goes along with his revelations, he thinks that the ground his crumbling under his feet. Loki is not his brother. And Loki is dying. He doesn't know what is the most horrifying. The one with he spend all his childhood, the one with he shared his laughs and cries, his glories and his failures, is a Frost Giant. The one he swore to protect, no matter what, is doomed to Death. Thor remembers now all the times when he and his friends called the Jötunns ''Monsters''. All the times they pretended to slaughter the Frost Giants in their games. All the times when he swore to slay them all.

Thor feels sick.

When Loki leaves the room, confusion and hatred written on his face, Thor is too dazed to react. Loki is far long gone when Thor thinks he might try and hold his brother back. At that time, Thor hates himself. He despises the slowness of his own mind that prevents him to act and talk, his ignorance and his inability to use pretty words like his brother knows how to. Thor curses himself for dragging Loki along in that stupid hunt when his brother told him again and again that he wasn't well. Thor realizes that he is the one who triggered off that. He is the one who shattered the Fate and the happiness of the very three people he loves more than anything in the world.

Now, all he can do is assess the damages. Loki deserted the place. Odin and Frigga have fallen on the ground, sobbing, helpless and old. Him, Thor, the mighty Thor, the greatest hero of the Nine Realms, is frozen on his spot, a lump in his throat and his arms dangling, just like the fool he is. Guards and servants have literally fled. Eir did the same. Neither of them are willing to see their Sovereigns stricken by grief. All fear the storm that, they know it, will come after.

Thor waits for it too. He even hopes for it. He would like Odin to recover and to yell at him, to punish him, to help him atone for his mistakes. It would mean that there's a way for Thor to sort out all the wrong he did. He remembers that peculiar time when he messed up Alfaheim Council (in Thor's defense, he did tell Odin that his presence would do no good). Odin's reprimands had shaken the Palace's walls for what it seemed an eternity and Thor, Alti Thor, had had the scare of his life. But as soon as his punishment carried out, all had reverted back to normal and no one spoke about it ever again. Maybe this time, it will be the same ? Thor hopes it will be the same.

But Odin doesn't yell at him. He doesn't speak at all. He doesn't even look up at Thor.

Odin, the King of Gods, is broken.

Thor runs away. He can't bear to see his Father like this. He doesn't even try to comfort his Parents, to tell them that everything will be fine for them, for Loki. He doesn't know how to lie like his brother does. Thor leaves the room as fast as he can, nearly knocks over a maid who was timidly inquiring if she could bring anything for her Sovereigns, and rushes into the stairs that lead to his rooms. He locks himself up inside them and lets his back fall heavily against the door, breath short and eyes burning with unshed tears. He wants to cry, but the tears do not come.

He stays like that a moment, leaning against the door. It's like he's boiling inside and he doesn"t know what to do to make it stop. His hands are shaking. Little by little, Thor sees red. He needs to strike, to smash something. A vase, a piece of furniture, a wall, anything, just to help him drain off that anger. And the more he tries to hold back his rage, the more it escalates. He doesn't even know to who it is destined. No, that's wrong. Thor knows. Thor is mad at all Asgard. He resents his Parents for hiding the truth from him, his tutors for raising him in the scorn and detestation of the Frost Giants. He holds grudges against Heimdall for never having said anything about it despite knowing (he can see and hear everything and he is supposed to not be aware of the case from the very beginning ? Who Odin is trying to fool ?!), against Eir for not being able to totally heal his brother.

Thor even resents Loki. For being ill. For being born Jötunn.

When he realizes it, Thor grabs the first thing he can get his hand on (a chest) and in a howl he throws it through the room, with all the violence of a hurricane. It crashes against the wall of the back, missing the window only from a few inches. Thor looks at the pieces of golden wood, scattered all over the place, and his wrath exploses, as a sentiment of self-disgust does. He falls on his knees and, still howling, punches with all his might at the ground with his right fist. Again, and again, and again. The flesh doesn't break but he does hear the bones crack. It doesn't stop him.

Oh, how he hates himself. How dare he ? He triggered it all, spoiled everything. How dare he resent all those people who always loved and supported him ? How dare he hold grudges against Loki when his brother has nothing to do with that ? Thor always thought of Frost Giants as aberrations, creatures not even worthy of living. At that very moment, he feels himself far more monstrous than them. He doesn't even dare to imagine about what Loki is thinking of it all. Does his brother think that Thor will butcher him, just like he swore to do with all of his kind ? Does he think that he will be locked up in a cage like some foreign beast to be displayed to the people of the kingdom, like they do in Midgard ?

The images that those thoughts bring to Thor's mind twist his entrails. His fist collides a last time with the stones of the floor as spasms wreck his body. He retches without being able to vomit. Finally, the tears come and Thor greets them with relief. They come to appease the wrath that tears him apart and they take away the image of the Monster.

He hears something falls with a sharp and metallic noise and an object bumps in his left hand. Thor lifts his head and looks at the golden fragment with stupefaction. It takes him some times of intense contemplation to understand what it is. It's a piece of a frame. The frame that borders the portrait of the Royal Family. The nail that supported it didn't resist to violent outburst of the Golden Prince. When it fell, the frame broke and let the canvas slip. It slid on the floor, just into a puddle of wine.

Thor gets off the ground and dashes to pick it up. The canvas is not really damaged. The colors in the upper corner of the left are a little waterlogged, but the rest is intact. Thor contemplates the painted figures with nostalgia. He remembers the day when this painting had been made. He also remembers that Loki and him drove the painter nuts, to the point of making him tear his hair out. Neither Thor or Loki were willing to stay put for hours when there was a million of other things, far more amusing, to do. And if Odin was feared by all his people, he had absolutely no authority at all over his sons. In the end, Thor and Loki finally settled down a little (after Frigga got angry) just to allow the painter to make a quick sketch of them. After that, the painter ran back to finish the painting, in the calm of his workshop.

When they saw the result, Thor and Loki mused over the skills of the painter, for he had been able to give to the painted figures a feeling of peace and serenity, despise the fury of their Mother, the weariness of their Father and their own boredom at that time. The two brothers even tried to apology to the painter for their bad behavior but when he saw them come, the painter locked himself up in his workshop, shouting out that he didn't want to have anything to do with a crazy family like their again, and so the two Princes went back to the Palace. The learnt some time after that the painter left Asgard to settle down in Vanaheim.

Thor smiles when he recalls all that. It is true that this painter was gifted. They all seem so happy on that painting. Odin is embracing Frigga and each has a hand on the shoulder of their sons. Thor and Loki wear a radiant smile and their hands are entwined. And Thor realizes. He and Loki have always been together. Whenever Thor was reprimanded by one of his tutors or Loki had a nightmare, one always ran to find the other. It had been like that for centuries. Was still like that just a few days ago. They **are** brothers. And nothing will change Thor's mind on that matter. They swore to always protect each other, no matter what. And Thor, as rash as he can be, is a man of his word.

So, before the Portrait of his Family, Thor renews his oath. He leaves his rooms and goes find Loki.


	6. Chapter 5 : Blood Brothers

Hello everyone !

Oh la la ! I'm so sorry for the delays (I think I'm definitively done with one update per week… At least I tried… TxT). This chapter was really hard to write (too long ! too long !) but I'm quite satisfied with the result. Let me know what you think of it ! ^o^

Read and review please !

PS : I realized that despite all my efforts, there were HUDGE mistakes disseminated all over the chapters… I'll try to correct them as soon as I can… Sorry again… ! _ I don't have beta reader yet (you can consider that as a desperate call), so if there are mistakes, do not hesitate to let me know ! ^o^

Credits : Marvel. Nothing else to say.

**Chapter 5 : Blood Brothers.**

The door of Loki's bedchamber is double-locked. Of course. Thor stays behind that heavy door made of wood and metal for a long time, hesitating. As far as he remembers, every time he and his brother had an argument, Loki would hide himself in his chambers and only left it when he thought he had sulked enough for his liking. Usually, he would bear a large and mischievous smile that only meant that Thor would be soon the victim of a bad trick with Loki's print on it. Thor would let himself fall into whatever Loki's mind set up, then feign surprise and vexation before joining his brother in his laughing, and so they would be even. But every time Thor had tried to enter Loki's room before the latter thought it was time for truce, their reconciliation had been considerably delayed, and the tricks far pettier and slier.

Thor shivers now that he remembers the last time he had tried to force that door. Living all a week long under a maiden guise, much for the Warriors 3's mirth (and Fandral's delight) was not one of his fondest memories. For a moment, Thor considers retracing his steps and leaving Loki alone. To let him lick his wound in peace and assimilate the situation at his pace. Besides, it's not like the cold that comes from under that damn door was really welcoming. And more than anything else, Thor is afraid that Loki will reject him, or worst, that he will fear him. He would never hurt his brother willingly, but given the situation, Thor is not sure that Loki is very aware of that.

At the same time, something prevents Thor to leave the place. Some bad feeling that urges him to go and find Loki, right now, no matter the consequences. So, even if he knows that he is probably worsening things between him and his brother, Thor takes a deep breath to calm his rising nervousness, takes two steps backs, and gives the door a great kick.

He winces when the door breaks from its hinges and is smashed up against the floor. In his haste, Thor had lost the control over his strength. So much for the image of the protective big brother who will never use violence against his beloved little brother…

Then the cold runs through him like a dagger. Asgard is under one of the hottest summer than she had ever known, and yet there is snow covering the ground. If Thor had ever doubted the words of his Father regarding Loki's true origins, all the doubts are now erased, swept away by a draft filled with ice. That cold is worthy of Jotunheim the Cursed.

The darkness had invaded the room and don't let Thor see anything at first. Inside, all sources of light had been suppressed. Like a blind person, Thor goes forward carefully, slowly, with his arms raised before him and scouring the space to prevent him from bumping into a piece of furniture or any other object (he doesn't even dare to think about the consequences if, on the top of everything else, he were to break one of those magical artifacts with obscure powers that Loki cherishes so).

There is no sound that confirms him Loki's presence in the room, and that troubles Thor. He calls softly, almost in a whisper :

"Loki ?"

No answer. Not even the faintest noise. So Thor calls again, louder this time :

"Loki ? Loki are you here ?"

Still nothing. In his chest, Thor feels the beats of his heart go faster. The light that comes from the torches of the corridor starts to pierce the heavy cloak of darkness and now he can make out some disseminated shapes. The disposition of the furniture had been changed. Some pieces had even been knocked down and the contents of their drawers are now strewed across the floor. Suddenly, Thor hears something crack under his foot. Afraid that he effectively broke something, he removes it quickly, only to discover what should have been an oil lamp at some point. It is twisted and burned at some places. As his eyes grow accustomed to the dark, Thor discovers the disaster the Loki's bedchamber had become.

The room is devastated, just like a storm had run through it, destroying everything that was on its path. The floor is strewn with debris of all kinds, broken glass, charred and twisted metal, bits of torn paper, ashes, candles torn into pieces, spilt oil, shreds of fabric wearing the heraldry of Odin's House… In front of that desolated sight, Thor feels his blood runs cold into his veins. He used to make fun of that strange obsession with tidiness that Loki always had (that day when Frigga had said "a place for everything and everything in its place" must had been a revelation for him). Those monumental shambles are just reflecting how upset his brother must be.

In the middle of all that, brownish stains on the floor catch Thor's eyes. First, they are just few droplets, but as Thor follows their progression across the room they turn into imposing smears and become more crimson. With a start, Thor realizes that they are blood. And that they are absolutely everywhere, on the floor, on the walls, on the columns and on what is left of the furniture. He panics. So this is what encouraged him to come here ? Loki is wounded and he needs his help. But where is he ?

"Loki ? Brother, answer me ! I know you're here !"

Thor follows the blood smears and their erratic path, bangs into countless objects, knocks down some of them and tramples them without even knowing it, feels his heart stop every time the stains become larger and redder and he never stops to call his brother. He almost slips on a pool of oil when he finally finds Loki.

There he is, on the floor, slouched in a dark corner of the room, his back pressed down on the wall. He is unconscious. The left side of his face, the one that turned back Aesir, is wan and the skin is chalky, which make the blue on the right side clasher than before. His right hand is torn into pieces and there's a pool of blood under it.

"Loki !"

Thor rushes to his brother's sides and kneel beside him. Every time Loki draws a breath, a sickening and painful rattle can be heard. But he **is** breathing and that all that matters. Thor hesitates a micro second before putting his hands on Loki's shoulders and shaking him, gently at first, for he fears to hurt him more. When he gets no reaction from his brother, Thor shakes him harder.

"Loki ! Loki ! Wake up brother ! Please ! Come on, open your eyes !"

It takes interminable seconds to make Loki's eyelids flutter before finally making him open his eyes. His gaze is cloudy and the right eye is now totally red. He doesn't seem to see anything at first. He looks at Thor with a crazed look, without recognizing him. His head is heavy and his mind doesn't register anything. It takes him incredible efforts to just _think_. Then, at last, a flash of recognition passes in his dilated pupils.

"…Thor…?"

Thor winces when he hears the husky and broken voice of his brother. His throat still looks painful from his previous screams. Loki's eyes slide on Thor's frame without really processing what is around him. There is some fog that comes out Thor's mouth and nostrils when he speaks and breaths, like he was in the middle of a snow tempest. But Loki feels like his body is boiling inside…

"Are you alright ? Do you hear me ?"

He has fever and his lungs are burning. And…Thor stares at him with a strange look. Why…?

"Loki !"

When he sees Loki's pupils roll back in their orbit, Thor shakes him hard to force him to stay awake.

"No ! Don't go back to sleep ! Stay with me ! Stay with me brother !"

As soon as Loki hears that word, he opens his eyes with a start. And everything comes back to him and hit him square in the face. The memories, the rage, the shame… Thor sees the hate fills Loki's eyes, just before being brutally repulsed by him. Knocked of balance, Thor falls. Loki tries to get off the ground, but his head spins too much and he falls back. Thor rises and tries to help him, but Loki rejects him again with his valid hand.

"Don't…touch…me…!" he hisses between clutched teeth.

"Loki !"

"Go away ! Get… Get out !"

He is nearly hysterical and his eyes are wild. Loki looks like a wounded wolf on the verge of being finished off. Thor remembers the blood and the floor and on the walls. He tries to get a look of the injury but Loki struggles like a mad man. Finally, Thor loses his patience and he pins his brother against the wall his one hand and holds him still, while with the other hand he pulls Loki's right arm toward him. Loki claws and trashes but Thor merely tightens his grip. He curses himself for being so brutish and using such counterproductive ways with his brother, but it's not like Loki leaves him the choice anyway. He peels off the sleeve that cover Loki's forearm to examine the wound.

Thor swallows. The flesh is mangled, up to the elbow. What is left of the skin is rumpled for having macerated so long in the blood. There are shreds of bluish flesh hanging. The blood runs free. Loki stills and stares at his hand with morbid fascination. It's like he sees the wound for the first time. He doesn't even feel the pain. All he sees is that, inside the wound, the muscles are as blue as his skin and he wants to laugh and to pull his eyes out just _to stop seeing the blue, please._ Thor goes white.

"Loki…" he whispers with shaky voice. "Brother… what have you done to yourself…?"

Thor heads to the windows and tears off the drapes. Loki draws back when the light flows in the room again and hits his eyes. _Curse you Thor!_ In the dark, he could still pretend that everything was just a sick nightmare. Thor shreds the tissue in long straps and wraps them around the gashes to stop the bleeding. The crimson of the fabric turns darker. Loki lets him do, his eyes hazy once more.

"I'm not…your brother…" he gasps before being racked by a fit of cough. He spits blood.

"Loki ! What's happening to you ?!"

Thor is too panicked by the noises that Loki makes every time he breathes to suspect a bad trick from his brother. He releases his grip. _Wrong move_. Loki jumps at the chance of that improvised distraction and calls upon his magic. He sends Thor fly hard against a wall. Then he crawls in another corner of the room, far from Thor, his right hand cradled against his chest. He won't let himself caught again.

The blow isn't that painful (to Thor's humble opinion, it is the wall that suffered the most) but Thor is at lost about what he must do. The blood is still running. Loki needs care, but Thor only knows the basics of first aids (which will not be enough in this case). He doesn't know a thing about healing. He has no magic. Loki does, but it seems too weak to help. Loki is too disorientated to use it correctly anyway. They need Eir's skills, but Thor doesn't want to leave Loki alone. He fears that, in his nearly rabid state, his brother will hurt himself again. There are no servants nearby. They all ran away, scared by the desperate rage of their Prince. The only way left is to carry Loki to Eir's halls, but it seems that his brother will not make an easy task of it. Nevertheless, he has to try.

Slowly, Thor approaches the place where Loki took refuge but dares not get too close, fearing that Loki would lash at him again. He sees his brother's eyes slide on him with worry and distrust. Loki fears him. Thor knows it now, and it touches his heart. But he has no time for crying over that. Not now. Time is running. Thor raises his hands before him to show his brother that his is unarmed and not ill-intentioned. He sees himself, decades ago, when Freki fell into a wolf trap. Thor had to soothe the wolf nearly all day long to make the beast allow him to approach and free him. He hopes it won't take that long with Loki.

"Loki ! Please, let me help you ! You're bleeding out ! You're dying !"

Much to Thor's surprise, Loki bursts out laughing. A dissonant, croaky laugh that roots Thor to his spot. After some times, Loki, still chuckling, asks :

"And so what ? Why does it matter ?"

And in front of Thor's horrified look, Loki laughs with renewed vigor, before spitting a new flow of blood.

"Loki ! "

Thor rushes to try and help his brother, but the latter starts violently and screams.

"STAY BACK !"

A gust of biting and icy wind storms over Thor and snicks his face. The cut is minimal, barely bleeding, but Thor's heart is _aching_ and his body bends under that pain. When he looks up again, it's only to see Loki's face deformed by an ignominious sneer. On his brother's face, the blue crawls a little to the left side.

"Why all the worry, _Odinson_ ?" he spits the word with all the scorn of the whole Universe. "After all, aren't the monsters supposed to end like that in the stories ? Didn't the Jötnars die like that in our all games ? Bleeding out alone in the cold ?"

Loki's now wall-eyes are cleared from any drowsiness and pierce Thor with unnamable cruelty. The smile disappears.

"Haven't you swear to slay them all ? The Frost Giants ?"

Thor's face goes white when he hears those dreadful words. Loki doesn't look down. Thor realizes that he is waiting for an answer. He prays the Norns that the words won't betray him like they always tend to do.

"I… I was a fool to say that. Odin's beard, Loki ! You know how I am, always talking about battles and war and all ! But if only you knew how much I regret those words now ! I would never hurt you brother, and you know it ! So please ! Let me help you !"

Loki looks for the lies in his brother (non-brother, never-brother) eyes and fails to find them. During his entire life, Thor had never been able to make out a decent lie. He is just incapable of lying. But Loki did thought the same with Odin and _just look at the result_. And yet… And yet…

Loki's eyes roll back. A new fit of cough racks his body and he vomits blood mixed with bile. Tears come cloud his sight. He is suffocating. He curls up a little more, hopes for a time that he will merge with the stones of the wall, and stares at his bloodied hand.

"You really want to know how you can help me Thor ?" he whispers without tearing his gaze away from the flesh that is now taking a suspicious purple-blue hue.

Thor jumps at this serendipitous chance to prove his good will to his brother, to keep the oath he renewed just minutes ago.

"Of course ! I… I would do anything for you ! Tell me, brother ! Tell me what I can do for you !"

The hope disappears when Loki raises slowly his head to look blankly at Thor, eyes empty and strange patterns drawing around it.

"Kill me."

It's like Thor is struck by thunder. He steps back, stunned, trying to remain on his feet when his legs start shaking and threaten to let go.

"Loki, no…!"

But Loki pleads him again. He spits blood and implores.

"Please Thor ! I beg you ! Kill me !" He puts his valid hand on his chest to emphasize his words. "It… hurts Thor… Hurts so much… Like I am burning alive ! You heard Fa… Odin." Thor notes the correction as Loki speaks again. "I… I am doomed. Please Thor ! Have mercy ! If you ever loved me as your brother, please, do it !"

He doesn't have enough air to keep going on. He coughs again and cannot swallow anymore. In front of him, Thor looks at him with a mix of horror and pity. His face is so washed out that Loki half expect him to faint. How ironic that would be. He **is** the one dying here, not him ! Thor steps back again, shaking his head.

"No. Loki. No."

Loki looks utterly devastated. Then the rage comes back. Loki bares his teeth and hisses.

"I knew it ! You liar ! You said you'd do anything for me, but that was nothing but lies, wasn't it ? You are like all the others, you hypocrite !"

A spasm runs through his body and the pain bend Loki in two, but his eyes and his words keep pouring their acid venom.

"Go away then ! Let me be, leave me alone ! Go find the cowards that serve you as parents !"

"Loki… "

"GET OUT !"

The icy wind is back, but soon it falters and go back to nothingness. Loki's magic is gone. He can't even cast such a basic spell anymore. Witnessing his own weakness, Loki lets the tears run free again. Oh, how he loathes himself ! He curses himself, curses Thor, curses Odin and curses all Asgard as he cries bitter tears.

Thor gazes at his brothers, looks at him as he is drowning in his own despair. And all of a sudden, he can't stand it anymore. He knows what he must do. He takes the knife he always bears at his belt and step toward Loki, all hesitation gone now. The glow of the blade catches Loki's eyes and he looks up. Thor stops in front of him and raises the arm that holds the blade above his head. The surprise freezes him briefly, then Loki smiles. There we are. This is the end. _At last !_ Loki closes his eyes when the blade comes down to bring him liberation.

The pain he is craving so doesn't come. Loki wonders briefly if he's already dead and that those burns he feels are caused by the flames of Helheim. He opens his eyes, almost sure to find Hela, his beloved and abhorrent child. But when his eyes see again, he is still in Asgard, still in is rooms. And he sees blood on Thor forearm.

Thor had cut his right wrist open.

Loki looks at the blood that flows from the wound, stunned.

"Wha…?"

Thor throws the blade away and grabs his brother's wounded hand. Suddenly, Loki is scared. Thor has gone mad, that is for sure. As mad as that time, when he literally slaughtered Vanaheim's armies. Intoxicated by the blood, Thor had lost all control over himself and had left behind his rage a mass grave where dismembered corpses laid. Odin had to put his son under a freezing spell for three days and three nights, so Thor could calm himself and go back to his senses. Loki wishes to die, true, but he doesn't want to die _like that_, ripped apart by the bare hands of a rabid Thor.

Despise having no forces left, Loki starts trashing but Thor doesn't let him go, never will again. His fingers dig mercilessly into the blood stained flesh as he draws Loki's wounded hand toward him. It tears a pained cry from Loki's throat. Not paying it any attention, Thor forces Loki's fingers to fold around his open wrist, and he _squeezes_. He squeezes as hard as he can, until the effort makes his entire arm shake and until he hears Loki's joints crack.

A red flood runs free from their united wounds. Loki stills. He suddenly understands what is going on. Thor smiles, still not daring to release the pressure he's applying over his brother's hand.

"There Loki. Now we are truly brothers. For good this time."

Loki stares mutely at their two bloods that blend together to form just one. The very idea that Thor, legitimate son of Odin, Golden Prince loved by all the Nine Realms, would make a blood oath with him, monster, bastard, _Jötunn_, is totally nonsensical for him. Thor decides to take advantage from this silence. For once, he will be the one talking and Loki will be the one listening.

"Look, Loki. Our blood is the same. We are from two separated Worlds, but our blood remains identical. It appears that Frost Giants are not that different from Aesirs after all. Maybe we should tell our preceptors, just to make them stop spreading wrong concepts in the spirits of Asgard's youth, don't you think so ?"

If Loki is listening, he doesn't really show it. His eyes are stuck on the blood that flows down Thor's forearm, and he looks so horrified that Thor wonders if he did the right thing. Loki never was an adept of bloodsheds after all. Thor sighs. He slipped it up again.

Thor releases Loki's hand (that miraculously stays on his wrist), seizes gently his brother by the back of his neck and draws him close until their foreheads are in contact, forcing Loki to look him in the eyes. To listen to him.

"We share the same blood now. From now on, we are blood brothers, no matter what, and nothing will change that."

He has to refrain himself from laughing when he sees the confusion in his brother eyes. The fact that him, Thor, the pet hate of all the preceptors of Asgard, could make Silvertongue dumb with stupor, makes him exhilarated. Loki, him, doesn't laugh. At. All. He believes neither his eyes nor his ears. He has to produce great efforts only to manage to fumble.

"Why…? Why would you…?"

Thor doesn't even let him finish his question. He knows what Loki intends to ask, and he doesn't want to hear it.

"We were raised together, Loki. We grew up together, played together and fought together ! You could as well be a Sea Serpent, I would have no other brother than you ! I don't know anyone that can make me laugh like you do, and nothing can make me happier than when we travel the Worlds together, looking for adventures. I cannot think of living without you by my side, Loki. I don't want, nor can lose you, brother."

Loki clutches his teeth to the point of making them grind, and his eyes fill with despair.

"But… What future is left for me now ? I am all that Asgard… hates and despises from her very being. I am… I am hideous… and… and I can't even breath… What will become of me ?"

Thor warps his arms around his brother. He doesn't feel his right hand anymore. The cold of Jotunheim had penetrated his flesh and is forming a hand-shaped burn on his skin. But it doesn't matter.

"I will find a way. That I swear to you. I will find a way to make things better. No one will say that Thor left his brother to Death."

He smiles again, tightening his clutch on his brother, and his smile widen when he feels Loki timidly returns the embrace.

"Sorry Loki, but your reunion with your daughter will have to be delayed."

Loki lets escape a sound that is more like a sob than a laugh, but Thor knows he won when he hears him whisper against his shoulder.

"Oh Thor. You really are the biggest, sweetest idiot in the whole nine realms."


	7. Chapter 6 : Dancing Needle

Hello again !

And that's one chapter more ! It's far more shorter than the last (give me some credits, I work hard but I have to sleep time to time ! TxT) but it gave me so much fun (some lightness in such drama is good for my mood). I don't know if Eir will come back in the story, but anyway, I enjoyed writing her ! I'll think about something….

Thanks to all of those who favored me ! It made me so happy ! Thanks again ! ^o^

As usual, read and review guys ! ^o^

Bonne lecture !

**Chapter 6 : Dancing Needle.**

Bring Loki to Eir promised to be a new challenge for Thor. Weakened, Loki didn't have the strength to move, let alone walk. But when Thor offered to carry him, just one glare from his brother was enough to chill his blood. Loki's pride was already damaged enough, and the cold of Jotunheim had already carved marks into Thor's shoulders anyway so no, he would pass, thank you very much. For his part, Thor wasn't willing to leave the room without Loki, nor drag him across the Palace's corridors, just like a hunter bring his catch home as a trophy.

In the end, good fortune appeared to be by his side for Frigga entered the room. She had come to see Loki, to make sure that he was well and to try and soothe him. Instead, she found her two sons, wrists torn open and clothes coated with blood, sitting in the middle of a devastated room that had been repainted in dark red. She stayed frozen on her spot for a moment, turned mute by horror and shock, and Thor was sure that she would faint for all the colors of her face had been drained in an instant. But somehow, Frigga collected herself and left the room in haste, ordering her children _to just not move and stay right here while she went fetch Eir_ in a tone that suffered no disobedience. Thor refrained himself to state that they just _couldn't_ move from the room anyway, for he feared his Mother's wrath even more that Odin's himself.

Frigga came back some minutes later, Eir on her heels. Usually, Eir would have come with her assistants, but this time she was alone. Loki wondered vaguely if the two women were attempting to hide the case the best they could, but the relief of being seen in such a pitiful state (on the floor, bleeding, half supported by Thor, _blue_) by few people was stronger than those bitter thoughts and he let Eir kneel by his sides and examine his hand without even trying to evade her gaze. To what end anyway ? Breathing was already such a challenge…

Eir didn't say anything, not even to reprimand Thor and Loki and call them _imprudent fools that never thought about the ones who had to treat their wounds_ or tell them that she _should let them on their own to teach them a lesson_. She didn't even let out that long, exasperated and bored sigh of the times she hadn't even judge worthy to use her divine saliva to scold the two Princes (they would run to the first deadly danger as soon as they would feel better anyway). She just drew a little jar from her sleeves and applied a balm made with Idunn's apples on the wounds, with such gentleness that it surprised the brothers.

Eir's medicinal skills were well known in the Nine Realms, but the goddess, who seemed to abhor her art, did anything in her power to make those who came to her regret having been hurt. Her treatments were often bordering the sadism as she did all she could to make her gestures painful and always grumbled offensive words to her ''patients'' (even if, time to time, she dispensed advices to help them use the curative salves she always gave them). Loki experimented one of her treatments one, when he was but a child. After that, he just decided to learn magic and read all the books treating of healing sorcery s wouldn't have to go to Eir anymore. The only times he would see the goddess (who he and his brothers had fondly rename The Healing Demon) were when he would accompany an injured Thor, as compassionate support (seeing his brother shaking while waiting for Eir was an eternal source of entertainment).

But this time, Eir's touch was gentle and soothing, precise but soft at the same time when the cleaned the wound from all the dried blood. And in his mind, Loki couldn't help himself to resent Eir for that mercy that he misjudged as unwanted pity. He bared his teeth and let escape a low snarl. On his shoulder, Thor's hand grasped gently his shoulder in comfort for what he thought was an expression of pain from his brother. Eir raised her eyes to him and Loki held her gaze vehemently. When she went back to her work and planted a needle in the flesh to sewed back the torn skin, the gentleness was gone. Frigga and Thor averted their eyes as she worked. Loki, him, gazed, mesmerized, at the swift movements of the needle that, time to time, projected droplets of blood on the floor.

"Your hand is a total mess, your Highness. I doubt that it will retrieve all its dexterity. And the wound will probably leave a scar on the forearm. Whatever you did to achieve to that result, you shall not do it again." she admonished on a tone that she wanted harsh and reproachful but which sounded wrong (probably because she hesitated when she said ''Highness''). Loki refrained himself from laughing out loud. He shrugged slightly instead. Who cares about scars when you look like a Monster already ?

Eir hesitated a moment, disconcerted by the lack of reaction, and turned to face Thor, troubled eyes shining with strange glow.

"Your turn now, young Master."

Thor tried to not recoil but he clutched Loki's shoulder harder.

"Pardon ?"

"Your wrist. Did you honestly thought that I wouldn't see it, young Master ?"

Thor swallowed. The fight was already lost for him, but still, he struggled admirably.

"Eir… it's alright… you don't have t…"

"Give me that damn wrist before I become truly angry. I am not in a gaming mood, you spoiled brat." she growled menacingly and Thor could just comply.

Frigga ignored the insult made to Thor and, while Eir treated her first son, she kneeled near Loki. She attempted to caress his face but he drew her violently away. Frigga's eyes at this moment, all the hurt of a rejected mother that you could read on it, could have made a stone weep. Loki preferred to let himself soothe by the dance of the needle that sewed back Thor's wrist.


	8. Chapter 7 : Building the Golden Cage

Hello everyone ! After two long weeks when my little laptop gave me the worst fears (it didn't want to turn on anymore, the little trickster ! ah ah ah ! (laughing nervously)), I'm back again ! ^o^

Read and review, as usual ! ^o^

Have a good reading and rendezvous next week if all go well (and if my laptop complies… hang on little one ! The repairman comes tomorrow ! Hang on ! _)

**Chapter 7 : Building the Golden Cage.**

Odin came to Loki three days after his second admission at Eir's ward with what appeared like the beginning of a remedy. An old magic spell, left forgotten in a dusty corner of the room of Archives. The possibility of transmuting, in a limited space, the environment and of modeling it as wanted. In one word, this spell would allow to recreate an atmosphere alike Jotunheim's. It would never be totally the same, but at least, it wouldn't make Loki suffer with each breath he drew. But it also meant that Loki would have to stay inside the magical zone, till the end of time.

It was the only solution and Odin welcomed it with a profound despair. Despise all his powers and his authority, he could do nothing else for his son than condemn him to confinement. He would have given his remaining eye without hesitation if it could save Loki, and yet he only could resolve himself to lock him forever. And he feared the reaction of his son. Of both his sons. But when Thor reacted just as predicted (choc, denial, anger, haggling, the steps of mourning in sum), Loki remained impassive. For one moment, Odin thought that he didn't hear him, or just didn't listen to him. After all, Loki now only displayed profound indifference for those who he once called ''Father'' and ''Mother''. But finally, an unsound smile tore its way on his son's face and Odin knew that he was lost to him forever.

"In the long run, masks stick on the skin. Eventually, the hypocrisy becomes good-faith. Do what you must, All-Father. And free me of your presence."

Odin left the place without a word, leaving Loki to his lunatic hatred. That very day, he went to Nidavellir find the Dwarves and gave them a part of Asgard's Treasures in exchange of their help. The Dwarves accepted without even trying to haggle. They would have make Odin's will even without all this gold, for the look on Asgard's Sovereign face at that time scared them to core. After that, Odin went to the Elves of Alfaheim who were in debt with Asgard. He offered them to clear their slate in exchange of their assistance. Too happy to make the Nine Worlds forget about Algrim's treason, the Elves accepted without any hesitation.

Elves and Dwarves worked together to build a new room in the outmost place of the Palace. They decorated it as richly as if it was the room of a King, with the noblest and the most refined materials in all the Nine Realms. Odin made them add a wide window, and made sure that it gave on the most beautiful view of Asgard. The Dwarves took care to build the mounts with fine gold, which the Elves set of precious stones, before pouring a glass that could be mistaken with crystal. At last, Odin endowed the place of an immense bookcase, containing more books that even Loki had never dreamt of. Once the work finished and Dwarves and Elves dismissed, Odin traced signs with blood on the walls and on the doors and casted the spell. The blood turned blue and evaporated as the cold of Jotunheim filled the room. The spell worked.

Finally, Odin asked Thor to notify Loki that he could settle in his new room, that the maids, between them, already called _aukso narvas_, the golden cage. Thor didn't have the heart to tell him to go and tell Loki **himself** and complied. Odin, him, locked himself in the Throne Room and dismissed all the guards. He reappeared only a few days later, looking more old and weary than ever.

Thor guided Loki to his new chambers. Loki swept the place with a resigned look. Neither the gildings, nor the precious stone, nor the fine crystal cups did make his eyes shine. Even the bookcase (which gave Thor a headache just by seeing it) couldn't spark off the slightest reaction. Loki just stated that breathing was becoming easier and that the fire that ravaged his body was calming down as he moved across the room. Odin's spell worked. And at that moment, Loki couldn't tell if he was grateful or more furious than ever against the All-Father.

In the end, only the window could stir him from his apathy. From this room, Loki could see almost the totality of Asgard, and Loki wondered about that fact. Even Odin hadn't such a view from his own room. How a place as isolated as this one could give such a sight ? Thor was amused to see his brother looking, with patient insistence, for hypothetical prints of magic left on the window, happy to see again, even if it was for a small moment, the curious man thirsty for knowledge whom Loki had always been.

"Well Loki ? I would never have believed that a common window could attract you more than a new collection of books !"

And Thor laughed out loud at that. It sounded odd at his own ears though. Maybe because Thor found that magnificent window and its wonderful view crueler than Eir's words when she scolded his brother for having injured himself. Maybe because he thought that it was not right to show the beauty of the outside to someone who will never be allowed to walk freely out of his room again. As he laughed, Thor didn't see Loki trace odd invisible signs on one of the panes. He didn't see the glass turn black in a split second before getting back to normal either.

"I must admit that Dwarves' skills are amazing." Loki said placidly. "Their magic is strange and hard to decipher, even for me. But I will find the spell they used to create that illusion eventually. After all, I have plenty of time now."

That was all. Loki requested Thor to leave. When Thor, suddenly so very serious again, looked reluctant, Loki promised to stay put and leave his hand at peace. He said that Thor could come back later, but for now, Loki was tired and he wanted to stay alone for a while. Thor only could comply.

As soon as Thor was gone, Loki went straight to the door and carved other signs on it that shone briefly with a green light. When Loki's chambermaid came to bring him some food, she found that she was unable to open the door, even if it had no lock on it. Loki had sealed the door with his most powerful sorcery. He wouldn't allow anyone in his rooms ever again, no matter what reason had people to come here. Even Frigga and her pure magic couldn't break the spell. As for Odin, he didn't even bother to try. It was pointless. Loki was as vindictive as obstinate, and he had no right to blame him for that.

From this moment, no one in Asgard saw the second Prince ever again. People whispered that he was taken by a strange illness that disfigured his face and obliged him to stay secluded in his rooms. That, in shame, the Prince had even blinded his window so that nobody would be able to look at him again. Little by little, the name of Loki became synonymous of bad omen and vanished from conversations. And eventually, all resumed their habits and didn't think of the Green-Eyed Prince anymore.


	9. Chapter 8 : Bad Blood

**Chapter 8 : Bad Blood.**

"That was mean, Loki."

Loki sighed before starting to laugh. He turned from the window he was examining to face his brother.

"And what did you expected from me ? I am a mischievous one, and you know it. And even if I'm called God of Lies, I kept my promise to you."

And he did. Loki had close his door to everyone in Asgard, except Thor, so he could still come and see if he was well, just like Loki told him before dismissing him the day before. However, he shall live untold the fact that this "favor" was just the result of a loophole in his spell. The seals he summoned used his magic signature as a reference to work. Those who didn't bear Loki's magic were seen as ''strangers'' and so were forbidden to pass the door. And Thor should have been part of those ''stranger''. Except that Thor had shared his blood with Loki. Their blood had become one, if not for one second. And that just changed everything.

When he affixed the seals, Loki never suspected that Thor could now bear the same magic signature than his (damn, he would never have thought that Thor could have a magic signature to begin with). It was only when Thor burst in his rooms (nearly dislodging the door from its hinges in the process) that Loki told himself that he should reread the basics of sorcery, just to be sure to avoid such stupid mistake in the future.

"This not fair for Mother and Father." Thor retorted, crossing his arm over his chest. "Nor it is for everyone else anyway."

Loki snarled, rolling his eyes. He was not in the mood for a lecture, especially not from Thor, the rabid warrior who went straight into battle without even considering the possibility of thinking of a strategy. He looked back at the window with disdain.

"Was it to moralize me that you absolutely wanted to see me again ? If it is so, you will be nice and leave the room, please."

"Why ? So you can change the spell you casted and forbid me the access of your chambers, just like all the others?" Thor replied in the same vicious tone.

Loki clutched his fists, but didn't move.

"Why not ?" he hissed. "That day was so enjoyable, until you appeared."

A long silence followed and the tension in the air went up a notch.

"Coward." Thor finally said, with such a calm and poised voice that no one could have believe that it was he, the fiery warrior of Asgard, that had spoken. Loki turned round sharply and looked daggers at his brother with mismatched eyes. Thor withstood the glare without any ounce of discomfort, and Loki thought that, maybe, he just dreamed the word. That would not have been the first time. But just to be sure…

"What did you said ?" he asked, voice heavy with threat.

"You are a coward, Loki." Thor repeated. He went forward, looking down at Loki. "Inside, it all settles well for you, to having to stay inside Father's magic zone, isn't it ? It gives you a good excuse to allow you to stay hidden in your room, just like a frightened beast would stay in its den. To cut yourself from the rest of the world. That is the behavior of a coward, not of a warrior from Asgard."

More than that affront, it was the contempt in Thor's eyes that hurt the most. Loki exploded. _How could he dare…?! _The room was suddenly covered with an heavy coat of snow and the temperature dropped from several degrees, breaking all the objects made of glass that were around Loki. Thor noted absent-mindedly that the window had not been touched by that brutal thermal shock before being violently grabbed by the collar by a Loki, more destructive that Thor ever saw him.

"What do you think ?" Loki spat in his face. « That it pleases me to be locked up here ? To have to depend on Odin's magic ? Let us trade our place then, just for one day, and you shall see ! You shall see how fun it is to be defaced ! To have to contemplate the world from that accursed window without never being allowed to walk outside again ! To feel your skin melt every time you try and reach the limits of the zone ! We shall see if you still want to see people again! We shall see if you still call me a coward ! Every breath I take is pure torture ! Only because Odin tried to appease his remorse of having crushed Jotunheim by picking up a runt, that was condemned to die anyway ! Everything is his fault ! That damn one-eyed wrinkly… he'd have better let me rot in Jotunheim !"

Loki had still so much things to say, so much venom to discharge in Thor's mind, _oh Great Thor, Golden Prince adored by all. _He opened his mouth to keep throwing his hatred and anger but Thor's fist went to smash his jaw, sending him on the floor and efficiently silencing him.

Stunned, Loki stayed down. He was blinded for some seconds by the pain of the blow and, deep under his skull, a dull sound rang. When Loki swallowed, he winced as he tasted blood. He had bitten into his tongue. He brought a hand to his face and the fingers came back tainted with red. Loki looked at them, thunderstruck. Thor just had… punched him. Thor had punched him. _Thor. Had. Punched. Him. _He…

Thor grabbed violently Loki by the neck, knocking him out of his thoughts that were beginning to drive him crazy and forcing him to look at him. Thor's eyes were glassy with rage and Loki panicked. He waited for another blow, but Thor spoke, voice low, nearly mastered.

"You really think that you're the only one who suffers in this story ? You think that you're the only one caged by this spell? Did you ever think about what the others feel ? To our parents ? Our friends ? How do you think they live this situation? You condemn Father and Mother, you call them hypocrites and accuse them of lying, but their love for you not faked! It never was! Were they cruel to you ? Did they ever treat you differently from me ? Did they ever denied you anything ? No, I think not. But you, you treat them with insufferable cruelty ! You suffer, and for that I am infinitively sorry. But did you ever see all the pain in Mother's eyes ? Her suffering worth yours, believe me ! Father almost doesn't leave the Throne Room. Mother cries all day long. Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun, they all ask me where you are and when you will return. And I…"

Thor interrupted himself. His throat was too constricted to let him keep speaking. It took him a time to realize that it was tears that clouded his sight. Loki still looked at him, very still, like frozen with fear, eyes wide with shock. Thor's cold and implacable anger terrorized him. Thor gritted his teeth until they gnashed. He released Loki and let him fall again on the floor. He stood and turned his back on him.

"You want to stay alone ? Fine. I'll leave you be. I won't bother you again."

Thor took one step forward, but couldn't go any far. Something gripped his cape and kept him rooted to his spot. He lowered his head to see in what that damned cape was stuck into, cursing mentally. What he saw was a hand. A blue, scarred hand. Loki.

"Please… Please… Don't go…!"

Loki gripped Thor's cape like a drowning man would grasp the hand of his savior. Thor was about to try and free himself, but he hold back his movement. Loki was shaking, shaking so much, as if Jotunheim cold was affecting him all of the sudden. And his eyes… His eyes was just despair and suffering and pleading.

"Loki…"

"Please ! I… I won't blame Father or Mother again ! And I won't complain anymore ! But please ! I beg you ! Don't leave me ! Don't leave me here alone !"

And Loki started sobbing. Thor shook his head, sighing. Loki hadn't understood why Thor was so angry at him. It was those accursed magic seals that Thor resented. It was against them, all that they implied, that he condemned. But Loki hadn't understood it. Thor was tempted to leave, to let him think about it and understand the true meaning of his anger. His brother was a smart man. He would understand, given time. But Thor couldn't. He just coudn't. Seeing his brother cry, on his knees before him, was crushing his own heart. And didn't Thor swore to always protect Loki, no matter what ?

Thor kneeled next to Loki and took him in his arms.

"Easy Loki… Don't worry. I'm not leaving. You see ?"

Loki pressed himself against his brother, gripping him with all his might, sobbing even more. It was like when they were children, when Loki had had a nightmare and went for Thor to be protected from the bad dreams.

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"

"Shh. I know, Loki. I know."

Years later, Thor would realize that, at that very time, he could have easily obtained from Loki to undo the seals and that it would have probably saved him. But that day, Thor couldn't find the strength to do it and he just kept Loki huddled in his chest, whispering him words of comfort and swearing him that he would never leave him, that he loved him too much for that.

Years later, Thor would make Mjölnir dance through the training field until his muscles screamed in agony and until he collapsed on the dust to punish himself for his own weakness.

He he he ! Thor to the rescue… or quite not (depends of how you're seeing it). The madness slowly set itself and the rift kinda widen between the two brothers. Don't worry, it will only go worst (yeah, I'm sort of a sadist sometimes… ToT)

Sorry for the delay, I couldn't find enough time to translate the chapter sooner (curse you, evil week of exams ! And curse you, you damn limited knowledge in English language of mine ! o) Well, I'll try to not do that again (can't promise anything though, a new era of grading will soon come…. Why… T_T)

Anyway, thanks to all who favored my story ! I love you all ! ^o^

Read and review please ! ^o^

See you soon ! ^o^


	10. Chapter 9 : Letting Go

**Chapter 9 : Letting Go.**

* * *

The seals stayed, fulfilling perfectly their duty days after days. Thor didn't impugn them again. He didn't pay a visit to his brother to quarrel with him. Thor regretted enough their last argument, which turned Loki into a fearful and almost totally mute person. Even if he claimed otherwise, the solitude terrorized Loki and he didn't dare speak freely anymore, fearing that his damned tongue let slip something that might anger Thor again and make him leave for good. Thor would never do that, but no matter how much time he said so, nothing seemed to ease Loki's dread.

So Thor visited him as often as he could. He would stay with him as long as his body could stand the unforgiving cold of Jötunheim, trying his best to fill the long moments of uneasy silence that would stand between them two with implausibly tales gleaned here and there, managing sometime to tear a more or less sincere laugh from Loki, and those rare moments would taste like victory to him. And despise the cold burning his skin and benumbing his limbs, Thor did his best to stay each time a little longer with his brother.

Over time, the visits became closer, longer, until Thor practically didn't leave Loki's chambers at all. He neglected friends, duty and Kingdom to keep company to his brother. The Golden Prince disappeared from the feasts and from the celebrations. He dutifully turned down each invitation to a hunting party or to an epic expedition offered by the Warriors 3, or Sif, or anyone. He refused each mission set by Odin or the _Diars_. Heimdall didn't have to debate with himself to decide if, yes or no, the purpose of his Young Prince's new foolish quest of really justified the use of the Bifröst and if it was worthy enough to brave Odin's scolds that inevitably followed each Thor's travel (and the diplomatic incidents that came with).

Like Loki, Thor suddenly vanished from the sight of the people of Asgard. He was willing to lock himself with his brother for the eternity if he had to, just to make sure that Loki wasn't alone. That was Justice after all. Thor was the one who triggered it all and brought misfortune on his Family. It's was not fair if he was the only one left unscathed in this story.

Loki said nothing. He just quietly, secretly, enjoyed his brother's presence (even if sometime it was as cumbersome as comforting). He had been so blinded by his resentment that he had underestimated the violence and the cruelty of an eternal isolation. But he saw it now. Before, he used to rant against Thor when the latter dragged him, more or less by force, in never-ending strolls (that always ended in fight to death with a Dragon, a Troll, or whatever creature with fangs and claws that crossed their path) with their friends instead of just leaving him study in peace. But now, Loki knew better. If Thor left him, Loki would die from it.

But while he savored the company and pretended to listen to his brother's odd stories, Loki observed. And soon, he noticed alarming changes in Thor's behavior. His laugh turned less booming, less cheerful. Rarer, too. His skin lost its tanned complexion from the time of the long adventures, and it covered up with burns from the cold. While Loki regained slowly his strengths, Thor, he, was growing weaker. The azure blue eyes lost their sparks of life and turned vacant. And Loki took fright when he surprised more and more often the longing in those once forever happy eyes when Thor looked at the flight of the migratory birds through the window.

Captivity was not for Thor. He couldn't stand the seclusion and he would die if he stayed locked here, but his love for his brother didn't allow him to let him alone in his big golden cage.

Loki thought about it for a long time, torn between two sentiments. A tiny, and yet how so abhorrent and loud part of himself just didn't care. It said that it served Thor right, that it was his fault after all, and why in Hel's name should he give Thor a freedom that he himself had lost forever ? And at the same time, while Loki only had disdain and bitterness toward the people of Asgard (even if he didn't say it aloud anymore), Thor kept his place in his heart. Seeing him wither through the day was far more painful that those fires that consumed slowly his body.

Desperate, Loki looked for a way that would allow him to keep Thor by his sides and give back his strengths and enthusiasm to his brother at the same time. He sought until the sleep and the hunger couldn't reach him anymore. He searched so hard. But found nothing. Loki had to resign himself. Thor couldn't stay with him.

* * *

One day, when Thor, oh forever loyal Thor, enters the room, he finds Loki looking intently through the window, eyes unfocused. Thor opens his mouth to greet his brother but, for the first since months, it is Loki who speaks the first.

"They are setting an expedition. To Alfaheim."

Thor starts at that. How…?

"How do you know ?"

Loki laughs, a mockery of what used to be his laugh before.

"Birds. They are so talkative, you know ? And they can see everything. No wonder that Odin choose two ravens as spies."

And he laughs again, because he used to be so scared of Huginn and Muginn, with their piercing eyes and big black feathers and sharp talons. They still scare him. A little (but just because now he knows that they are no pets but real spies who would report every move of every living of the Nine Realms to their Master).

"You speak with **birds** ?" Thor asks, and there is some jealousy in his voice. He has to struggle to tear one word to Loki, and his brother speaks freely with birds, creatures as brainless as the worms they eat (with all due respect to Huginn and Muginn). "Since when ?"

Loki just shrugs at that, eyes following absently the clouds in the sky. Stupid Thor. Who care about since when he can talk to birds ?

"Will you go with them ?" he asks instead, and his fingers twitch on the window, because he already knows the answer and because what he'll have to say is tearing is heart apart.

Thor hangs his head down. Oh, Norns, how we wants to go. Go, if only for one day, away from that cold and doleful place that gnaws on his fingers. Sun, fresh air, _Freedom…_

"No" he says, and it's like a little part of himself died.

Loki stays silent for a moment. _There is still time_, a voice says, deep inside his mind._ You still can keep him by your sides, all you have to do is to stay silent…_

"But you're dying to go." Loki follows on. It's not even a question. He knows.

Thor takes a step back. What is this cruel game that his brother is playing ? Or maybe it's a test ? Maybe he wants to see if Thor truly cares about him, care enough to give up an umpteenth opportunity to go away from him ? Maybe if pass this test, then Loki will go back to his old usual behavior ?

"Loki… no. No, I…"

And Loki laughs again at that, and that laugh chills Thor to the bones, because it remembers him when Loki asked him to kill him.

"Oh Thor, you never was able to say a decent lie !"

Thor wants to defend himself and to tell him that he doesn't lie, that he truly wants to stay with him, but he stops himself before he says anything. Loki is right. Thor never knew how to lie properly. He failed. Again.

"Go with them."

Those three words ring like a clap of thunder and Thor staggers.

"What ?"

Finally, Loki abandons his window and turns to face him. His eyes shimmer in a way that scares Thor.

"Go to Alfaheim. I think our soldiers need you more than I do."

Thor doesn't understand what is happening and when Loki is about to resume his false study of the clouds, he pulls him close and embraces him with all his might.

"I'm not going to leave you, Loki. I won't give up on you. Never ! I… I don't know how to make you understand that, how to make you believe me, but…"

"I believe you, Thor." Loki murmurs as he lets his fingers runs through his brother's golden hair. "I believe you. But you must go. If you stay, I will lose you forever."

Thor tightens his grip and burrows his head in Loki's neck.

"You did more than your share" Loki says, voice calm and steady, as if he was speaking of the weather. "But it's time for you to regain your freedom. Imprisonment is not for you, brother. Don't you see what this accursed place is doing to you ? **I** see. And Asgard needs his Golden Prince. You must leave."

One by one, tears roll on Thor's face.

"I can't, Loki. I can't. How I am supposed to go and live like nothing happened, without you by my sides ? How could I walk free when you'll never be able to, when it's my entire fault ? No, Loki. I can't."

Loki stays silent, a little stunned. With all his self-pitying, he had not realized that Thor was feeling that guilty. How convince him then? How convince him to go ? The prospect of **begging** Thor is not really attractive, even if he did things more shameful during those past months…

Then, finally, an idea sparks to life in his tired mind. And he wants to laugh, because he was looking for that very idea since a very long time and to see it appears, just like that, is quite laughable.

"Let's make a deal, Thor. A… new oath, if you want. You will hunt in the woods with the people of the Court and you will travel across the Worlds with Warriors 3 and with the Lady Sif. You will fight in the name of Asgard and you will become the greatest hero of the Nine Realms. You will resume your old life, like if nothing happened."

"But Loki…!"

"And when you come back from your journeys…" Loki interrupts, because he feels his courage leave his heart and he has to hurry. "When you come back, you will come to me and you will tell me of your adventures. Like so, it will be like I had traveled with you, and I will see the Worlds through your eyes. Do you think you can do that for me, brother ?"

Loki prays the Norns to make Thor go away, right now, because it's getting really humiliating to always cry before Thor. But at last, _at last_, Thor stops shaking and he says the words that he's waiting for, and Loki fells so relieved that, for a short instant, it dulls that horrible pain in his chest from when his heart started to bleed.

"Aye, little brother. That, I can."

And at last, Loki lets Thor go.

* * *

Oh my God ! That chapter just **killed** me (and it was one hell to translate! _). I thought I would never be able to finish it ! _ I'm so sorry it took so long (especially when, in the end, it's quite a short chapter… sometimes I hate myself…), I did my best… ToT

One of my friend read it before I post it to tell me what she thought about it (and to correct the syntax mistakes, because even if I reread and reread again, there are still some and that just despair me…). The only thing she found to say was:

"Oh! It remembers me Beauty and the Beast ! You know, when the Beast lets Beauty go to save her father! Did you watch some Disney movies lately?"

…

Well, nope… But now that she said it… I worked 4 years in Disneyland Paris… Apparently, it left some marks on me… Van, I won't let you read my chapters first… T_T

Anyways, Thor, I hope that you enjoy your new status of ''Princess Beauty''… because I think that it'll follow you for a while ! Oh, and Loki, don't despair ! The Beast turns back into a human at the end of the movie (even if I think that he was prettier in his Beast form… TvT) !

Thanks for reading guys ! ^o^


	11. Chapter 10 : The Mirage

**Chapter 10 : The Mirage.**

* * *

There is a bird that took up residence on the window still. A magpie, more precisely.

With all the perches that could be found in Asgard, that damned feathered thing decided to build its nest on **his** window still. For a time, Loki suspected Odin to have ordered the magpie to taunt him with its large wings that offer it a freedom it doesn't even know it has. But the suspicion ends soon. If the magpie truly were Odin's emissary, it wouldn't fear Huginn and Muninn, for it would have the protection of the King of Gods. But every time it sees the big ravens crossing the sky, it runs away hurriedly and only comes back hours later, when it's sure that they are gone for good.

That bird is driving Loki mad. It's an inconsiderate and terribly invasive guest. Loki has only one window to gaze at the outside and try to distract himself by other means than reading. And that window is now mostly obstructed by a messy nest with anarchic structure and it grows more and more every day. Not to mention that this magpie is probably the noisiest creature Loki ever had to deal with. It just never shut up. It cries and calls and bawls all day and night long. It doesn't let Loki focus on his books (or on whatever work he tries to do) or rest. If only those never-ending chatters held some interests in them. But no. That magpie only spreads humdrum gossips and cock-and-bull stories, repeating them in a continuous loop.

Loki did try to chase away the intruder. The one-way mirror allows him to not be seen from the outside and he honestly thought that it would be an asset. That it would give him the advantage of the surprise. He was wrong. The magpie is (alas) less loggerhead than expected. In its bird brain, even if there are strange noises, if it doesn't see any danger, it doesn't have any reason to leave the garbage dump it calls ''nest''. So Loki tried to recreate Huginn and Muginn's shadows in the sky to scare it, invoked the most violent winds, punched at the window, life threatened the bird, promising it the most atrocious deaths, begged.

But nothing worked. At best, the magpie flies away and disappears for some hours, a day at most, before coming back on its perch, with a maddening indolence. At worst, the chatters become stronger. Most of the time, the magpie settles for ignoring contemptuously Loki and straightens its feathers with foppish movements in order to show to that invisible nuisance that all its attempts to make it leave will remain vain, no matter what.

It's pitiful. Before being locked up here, Loki was a powerful Sorcerer, feared from all and in all the Nine Worlds. Even though his magic was at its lowest, he managed to create impregnable seals, even for Odin, the most powerful Seidr of Yggdrasil. Loki's ploys overcame hundreds of desperate situations, and even brought the higher dignitaries of Vanaheim and Muspellheim at his feet. With Thor, he fell more monsters and demons than he can even count.

And he is being harassed by a magpie. He could weep for that.

Overwrought, Loki finally envisaged asking Thor's help. Thor can go outside and Thor is strong (the strongest among the Nine Worlds). He could force the infernal bird to shut up (or wring its damned neck once for all). But for that, Thor would have to catch the magpie first. Loki has a lot of respect for his brother and doesn't doubt his goodwill, really. But he doesn't think that Thor is skilled and agile enough to capture a bird that has the sky as playground and the winds as allies.

Loki has those skills. He used to catch birds. Before. By curiosity first, then by games. He even has a plan. All he has to do is open the window when the magpie is gone hunting (a blessed moment that Loki awaits with desperate impatience), hide himself behind a spell of invisibility (no big deal, really) and wait for the bird to come back to catch it (pinning it down with a spell of immobilization if he must). Child play. Except that Loki cannot open the window. Else he will be consumed by Asgard's air.

Odin's protecting spell works like a cocoon. As long as it's sealed up, it protects everything it has inside. But if the cocoon is broken, or opened, then the protection becomes weaker and weaker, until it disappears for good. That's what Odin explained to him (or more precisely, that's what Loki retained, because truth to be told, he wasn't really listening).

Does that accursed bird really worth the risk to cancel the spell that keeps Loki from suffering Asgard's poisoned atmosphere?

There is a part of Loki that answers ''yes''. He hasn't hunted a thing for ages. He always claimed to not be found of hunting, but now he misses the gruesome sensation of warm fresh blood flowing between his fingers. Each fiber of his body craves for it. Probably because the lack of sleep and of entertainment awakes in him some death urges that Loki didn't even know he had.

However, when Loki sees his reflection in the only mirror that Thor convinced him to preserve (intact), those urges vanish and the answer becomes ''no''.

After being locked during all those years in the salutary atmosphere of his artificial Jötunheim, Loki regained the strengths and the power that were his before. No, that's wrong. He is even more powerful than before (it should be said that he had more time than he could wish to study and train since the ''incident''). And with his magic came back his metamorphose skills.

Loki doesn't remember exactly how he had the idea to transform his appearance to hide the scaly blue skin of Frost Giants behind the smooth and delicate one of Aesirs. Or more accurately, he doesn't understand why he hadn't had that idea sooner. Maybe because he would never have thought that he could feel fine in the freezing air of his golden cage. Maybe because he thought that fire devouring him from inside would never go away.

When Loki realized that those said fire weren't burning anymore, that he wasn't suffering at all and that his magic was back at its height, coincidentally the same day he stumbled on that stupid mirror and, for the first time in many years, he saw what he looked like. During the next weeks, Loki buried himself in the study of metamorphose and spent all his time experiencing the new theories that resulted from it.

The process was long, fastidious, painful even. If someone had said him that it was easier to transform himself into a dragon or a chimera than simply change the color of his skin, Loki would never have believed him. The first attempts were more than disappointing and the results just disastrous (again, when he thought that wear a face half-Jötunn, half-Aesir with heterochromic eyes was the most hideous thing possible, Loki was wrong).

But after numerous tries, he finally managed to wash that disgusting blue from of his skin. At the beginning, the spell only held for some minutes and required so much concentration and energy that it left him exhausted and unable to think for the next days (and having to reassure Thor and convince him that yes, he did left the wound on his right wrist alone and no, it wasn't because Thor was far from him that he was ill when his brother found him, inert and shaking with fever wasn't helping). However, month by month, as his magic grew stronger and his body more accustomed to it, the spell became easier to conjure, easier to manipulate. It lasted longer and longer, minutes first, then hours, then days.

Today, it's like nothing happened at all. Loki has his old appearance back. He looks like a Prince of Asgard again. Mirrors don't scare him anymore, for he knows what he'll see in the glass. His real face.

For months, Loki assured himself that the spell held well and one day, when Thor, barely returned from a trip in Midgard, came to see him in his apartments and relate him his adventures, Loki greeted him with his Aesir skin. When he saw him, Thor went dead still and stayed here, agape, speechless, stunned. It was only when Loki burst into laughing before his dumbfounded look that Thor realized it was really his brother standing in front of him, not some illusion created by the tiredness of his journey or a dream full of hopes that would be crushed in a few minutes. Crying and laughing at the same time, he held Loki with so much strength that Loki thought his body would break in two (even if he did or said nothing to make him stop).

"Is that really you brother?"

"Who else, you fool?"

And Loki resumed his laughing, calling his brother an idiot. Thor gladly accepted the insult. He hadn't see Loki laugh like this in centuries. Literally. He had absolutely no idea of what Loki did or how he did it, and he couldn't care less. Magic, sorcery, spells, all that was totally alien for Thor and he didn't understand it. He never understood it. The tricks were not for him.

All he managed to grasp from his preceptors was that magic was, by essence, ephemeral. So Thor knew that if Loki's appearance was due to sorcery, it couldn't last forever, even if his brother acted like it would. Maybe Loki was not really aware of that fundamental fact. Maybe Thor should had remain him that. But he couldn't. Because his brother wasn't trying to hide himself in the darkest corners of the room. Because he was speaking again, with crafty words full of self-confidence and had sharp bright green eyes again. Loki was all powerful again. Loki was Loki again. At last.

So even if it wouldn't last forever, it was worthy. And so Thor just marveled at his brother's talent.

But when his hand brushed Loki's face, Thor's smile froze on his lips. The image was perfect, but the sensation this beautiful skin, barely more tinted than fresh snow, send to his finger was unpleasant, not to say disgusting. It felt like the stiff yet spineless skin of a corpse. A frozen skin. Oh Norns. So cold!

At that instant, Thor's mind drew a cruel picture and made it dance before his eyes. The picture of Loki wearing a mask made of rotting flesh, and laughing, laughing, laughing…

His stomach gave a lurch and Thor took two steps back, shaking, trying to erase from his eyes a vision that will haunt his nightmares for years. Loki, him, full of a euphoria he never thought he could feel again, didn't see his brother's unease.

"Eir said that no one could do anything for me, that it was impossible for me to change back to normal! Ah ah ah! She forgot that the word ''impossible'' doesn't apply to Loki! Oh, how I'd like to see our dear Healing Demon's face when you'll tell her how wrong she was! You will tell her, right Thor?"

Thor nodded, a pale smile on his lips while Loki resumed his laughter with greater intensity.

Thor never told anything to Eir.

* * *

Hello everyone! ^o^

He he he… I've just realized that I passed the threshold of 10 chapters (actually, I passed it with the last chapter, but my brain didn't quite register it… TvT)… I don't believe it. It was supposed to be a short fiction!

That's almost the end of my classes (4 days… in 4 days, I will be FREE!... to look for a job…TvT) and so, logically, I will have more time for writing (YES!).

Te fiction comes slowly to its turning point and now the first mask is in place. There are many left (and all will not be that visible!). Loki is walking on the edge of sanity (or is it Thor?) and we all know that he's not really that skilled when it comes to resist to madness (but then again, who really can tell what is truth and what is lies?)

Special thanks to tAngierine who posted my first (English-speaking) review! Thank you so muuuuch! ^o^

Bye everyone! Until next time! ^o^


	12. Chapter 11 : Drifting Away

**Chapter 11 : Drifting Away.**

* * *

He has read and re-read the same paragraph fifteen times in a row, and he still can't grasp any sense from it. He can't stay focused more than ten seconds. After hours of sound pollution, Loki has enough.

"I am going to slaughter that damned bird." he suddenly declares, closing vehemently his book, exasperated.

Thor barely looks up from his work. Just a few details left and the tiny wizen piece of bark he found at Yggdrasil's feet will be the exact replica of Freki.

"Which bird ?"

"That scourge covered with black and white feathers that tries to pose as a magpie for a little more than five years. That one bird."

Thor _hums _absent-mindedly without really answering. He doesn't quite understand why Loki is so angry at that magpie. It's just a bird after all.

"I tried everything, really, but it just won't go away ! What is so special with this window for making such a demon refusing to leave it !" Loki grumbles, looking at the said ''demon'' (currently straightening its feathers with foppish movements, peacefully sited in its nest) with a murderous glint in his eyes.

"Did you try to speak to it, brother ? You are a master of words. Surely you could convince it to leave you in peace."

Thor feels the emerald eyes turn toward him and, for a moment, it's like the air in the room turns even colder than before. When he looks up, Loki's gaze is piercing him, with a mix of cold anger and exasperation in his eyes that makes signs of warning running along Thor's spine. However, it takes much more to discourage the recently appointed God of Thunder.

"What ? Didn't you tell me that you know the birds' language ?"

Loki still stares at him, and Thor is almost sure that his brother is wondering what kind of spell he will use against him. But in the end, Loki settles for an annoyed ''_tss_'' and, after another look heavy with hatred and bloodlust toward the window, he sits with his brother on the side of the bed. Thor deduces that the storm is over and that now he can resumes his work without risking some backlash.

"Who would have guessed that _Atli _Thor was that crafted for such a subtle art that carving is…" Loki murmurs thoughtfully after a while.

Thor smiles at that.

"Do you think so ?"

"Oh, come on ! That piece of wood looks better than the original !"

Loki takes the statuette from Thor's hands and makes it turns carefully between his own fingers, inspecting it with the greatest attention. A malicious grin appears on his lips.

"It looks smarter, too."

"Loki."

Loki sniggers when he hears his brother's falsely disapproving tone. He stills quickly changes the subject of the conversation, because if he goes on this way, he knows that soon he won't be criticizing Odin's wolves, but Odin himself. And he doesn't want to argue with Thor today.

"Who taught you how to fashion wood ?"

"No one. It's just… a pastime, you know ? You just need practice. You should try too brother. You are someone skilled with your hands. And that's a very good way to… well, pass the time and forget your worries."

Loki observe the piece of wood thoughtfully. ''Pass the time and forget your worries'', eh? Usually, it is his books that allow him to ''pass the time and forget his worries''. But now, with that accursed walking fanfare behind his window, they are of no use for him. Maybe he really should try that. Crafting wood. Creating things. Doing something with his hands.

He settles the wooden wolf between Thor's fingers once more and watches him add the last details.

"Will you give it to Sif?" he asks after a while.

Thor jolts so violently that he almost cuts himself with his carving knife and drops the statuette. Loki catches it just before it touches the floor (it is made of wood, but with Thor's improbable strength, better safe than sorry).

"Wh… Why would I give it to Sif ? There is no wolf in her heraldry…! And… And what would she do with that ? It's not a weapon, or a piece of armor ! It has absolutly no use ! She hates what has no use, and you know it !" Thor stammers, cheeks red and hands suddenly too contracted.

Loki bursts out laughter.

"Oh my ! Are you blushing ?"

"No, I'm not !"

"Yes you are ! I knew it ! Thor the Terrible is. In. Love !"

"Loki !"

"Pff ! Give it to her ! Even Sif and her legendary lack of sensitivity shall be moved by such present! And tell her what you think for her instead of beating about the bush for another century like the fool you are !"

Thor lowers his head, cheeks still flushed.

"It is not that simple Loki."

"Oh, right. I forgot. You're only the new God of Thunder, greatest hero of the Nine Realms and, incidentally Prince of Asgard. If only you were a better match…"

"That is enough!" Thor exclaims. He gives Loki's shoulder a gentle punch, trying to hide his embarrassment behind a nervous smile. "Why not try to succeed in your own sentimental life before taking charge of mine ?"

Thor regrets the words even before they're totally out. He wants to bash his own head in one the walls, just to see if he can get a rid of his stupidity once and for all. Loki is locked up a sealed room with an environment that no Asgardian could bear (how is it that Thor is not dead from the cold yet is still a mystery to both of them). So what sentimental life can he hopes to have ?

Loki hushes, and the silence is stunning to Thor. This time, that's it. Loki will change the seal on the door and even Thor won't be able to cross it ! Never again ! Oh Norns… He ruined it all, again…

But the storm Thor is waiting doesn't come. Instead, Loki shrugs.

"Aouch. That was a low bow, brother."

Thor hurries to apology.

"Forgive me Loki ! I didn't mean…"

"I know, I know. Skilled with your hands, not so with your tongue, right?" Loki says, and he shakes his head. "Maybe you're right. Maybe declaring your love to Lady Sif is not a good idea after all. With your natural subtlety, you will probably make her get cross with you. And when a half Valkyrie, half Berserker is cross with you…"

Loki doesn't end his sentence. He doesn't need it. They both perfectly know what Sif is capable of when angered, and that single though makes run a chill of dread along their spine.

Outside, the magpie (which seemingly had waited for Loki to stop reading to turn ironically quiet) let fall a concert of chatters, all more out of tune than the others.

"I am going to slaughter that damned bird." Loki repeats through gritted teeth, and in his eyes there is a threatening glow.

"Do you want me to try to chase it away ?" Thor asks, putting a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder to calm him.

"I want you to tear its wings apart and to take it to me so I could twist its neck myself. And when it's done, I want you to give it to Freki and Geki as a treat. You'll do want you want with the wings."

"Hum… I don't think the bird could go through your magical barrier, brother."

"Oh. Right. Well, try to make its death as long and painful as possible. That should be enough."

"And who is the one half Berserker now ?" Thor asks with a mocking smile on his lips.

By way of answer, Loki gives him a look half weary, half desperate. Thor pats his shoulder to show him his moral support, but find himself unable to hold the gaze. The metamorphose had altered his brother's eyes. They are too green to look real. They are now a poor imitation of what they used to be. Every time he sees those eyes, Thor sees the mask of flesh instead Loki's face.

And it makes him sick.

"I will see what I can do with your bird, brother." He finally whispers.

Loki nods perfunctory. Thor bids him a good day, promising him to see him again as soon as he is back from Vanaheim, then leaves without further ado, eyes glued to the floor as if the polished slabs were the most interesting thing he ever viewed.

Thor the Brave, _Atli_ Thor, the now God of Thunder, is fleeing.

Again.

* * *

**Hello everyone !**

**… Wow… almost 3 months without any update… I didn't think it's been that long… I'm so sorry for that long time of radio silence ! _**

**With the summer holidays, I thought I'd have more time to write, but unfortunately, I fell ill. A horrible illness, called LAZYNESS. It's terrible… God, I'm going to hide with my personal shame in a dark corner… ToT**

**But, well, I'm back now ! Mwah ah ah ! And with 2 chapters in a row this time so I hope you will forgive me ! Hope you'll like them ! ^o^**

**Oh ! By the way ! I've already used the expression _Atli _Thor before, but I forgot to explain it. _Atli_ is one of the numerous nicknames of Thor in Norse mythology and it means literally ''Thor the Terrible" (thank you, ô Wikipedia).**

**Here we are ! You know everything ! ^_^**

**See you later guys ! ^o^**


	13. Chapter 12 : This how the End starts

**Chapter 12 : This is how the End starts.**

* * *

The magpie is still here.

Oh, Loki doesn't resent Thor for that. From his window, he saw his brother try to chase the bird away. He even saw call upon the Thunder and the Winds with Mjölnir, his heavenly weapon received from Odin himself. Impressive, really. But utterly useless. The magpie barely yawned. That being said, it still allowed both of them to learn that Odin's barrier extends to the very stones, even the outside ones, of the apartment. And that Mjölnir the indestructible is just simply deleted by said barrier.

_That's good to know._

Since that disastrous attempt (that made flew away the very last nightingale which still had the courage to nest in the same area than this infernal neighbor and which used to sing the most delicious melodies, a tiny relief in the rare, sweet hours where the Demon went away to hunt its pittance), the magpie is trying to avenge itself by increasing its singing exercises while attacking its reflection on the window. Loki used to think it couldn't get any worse. Oh Norns, how wrong he was. As for Thor, he looks like a kicked puppy every time he comes to see him.

Loki told him that it wasn't important. That at worst that accomplice of Surtur had only ten years left before it finally passes away and shuts the Hel up (finally). In the end, all they had to do was pray the Norns and hope that the Demon will never, **never**, have a clutch. But no matter what he says, Thor keeps his head down, his shoulders slumped and his eyes obstinately away from him. His voice is monochord when he tells him of his adventures and his face is always marked by worry.

Loki knows why. He knows what culpability can do to his brother. And he blames himself because it was his selfish complaints which caused that. He would like to make it up to him.

But how?

He still remembers Thor's astounded face when he opened his door and saw him cleared of his blue scaly skin, Aesir once more. Thor looked so surprised then. Oh, how Loki'd love to surprise him again! In the past, Thor used to marvel at his magic spells and how Loki loved to create for him the most original illusions then! Those were the only moments when he, Loki, the very one who exasperated all the Weapon Masters of the Kingdom, felt stronger than the Invincible Thor. The only moments when Thor would see nothing else than he and his shimmering mirages he created on the air.

Now, when Thor comes to see him and tells him his stories, it's like he is miles away, far, very far from him. He doesn't even look him in the eyes. Actually, every time Thor's eyes fall on him, his brother's face darkens and his eyes seek with haste another thing to look at.

Loki would like to wipe the worry from his brother's eyes. That's the least he could do for him. He knows how much it costs Thor to come here, in his frozen lair. How much it's hard and frustrating for him to have to retell him each adventure, each trip, each moves. Loki is very aware of all Thor has to do to give him the illusion, even if it's for the slightest second, that he is free of his golden cage.

He would like to make him laugh with his spells, just like before. Lighten Thor's heart with crafty illusion and ''tricks''.

But Thor grew up while the spells remained the same. Loki doesn't think that a butterfly came out nowhere or a twirl of sparkling wind could amuse his brother anymore (it doesn't even amuse **him** anymore). He has to find something else.

At that time, the magpie gives out a succession of ear-splitting chatters that goes directly drill Loki's skull. Furious, he throws a book on the window, hoping it will make it hush. Wrong move. The chatters intensify. If Loki didn't know better and wasn't systematically denying the Demon the slightest form of intelligence, he could swear that it's laughing at him right now. If only he could open that window… But how ? Odin's spell has become frailer lately. It won't hold on if he let Asgard's scorching atmosphere in it.

_Unless._

An idea grows in his mind and, for the first time, Loki doesn't hear the Demon's shrill cries anymore.

Odin's spell is fragile. True. Maybe because the old man is, well, old…

_No kidding…_

… and his powers are not as powerful as before.

_Or maybe they never were that powerful to begin with._

But maybe that's not the only reason. Maybe it's frail because it has to cover a too huge zone. Loki appreciates his space, really. But what if he, Loki, could recreate the spell on a smaller zone ? Would it be more powerful ? Powerful enough to stand Asgard's air ?

_Come on ! Can't you think of something better than that ?_

What if… What if Loki found a way to place the spell on himself, himself and nothing else ?

_There you are._

If it could work, so he wouldn't need to stay in his prison to survive. He could go everywhere in the Kingdom, without fearing bad repercussions on his body. He could join Thor in his trips like he used to do before.

_And with your metamorphose on…_

_…_ it would be like nothing happened at all.

He would be free again.

Loki shudders. That thought prompts a wave of sheer excitation that spreads in his entire body and makes him shake like a leaf.

Oh, he shouldn't rejoice too early. Nothing is done yet, and all his reasoning rests upon theories only. Without even mentioning that despite everything, Odin remains the greatest sorcerer in the Nine Worlds, and that title is still valid despite his great age. That spell he uses can't be that simple to recreate. And Loki will have to use it all the time, just like his metamorphose spell.

_That's true. But your magic is great too ! Far greater than Odin's. Look what you achieved with it ! You don't even have to think to make your metamorphose work and hold. All will be fine, you'll see. You just need some training, that's all…_

A smile widen on Loki's lips. He wonders what kind of face Thor would do if he saw his brother waiting for him, standing on the Bifröst. He would be surprised, for sure ! By the way, Thor's birthday is only a few months away if he recall well. What better present Loki could possibly give him, if not the possibility to relieve him from the burden of the culpability that eats his brother away since the first day ?

_None. So ? You know what you have to do, don't you ?_

Let's get back to work.

* * *

It's late already when Loki hears the three short knocks at his door which heralds Thor's coming. Loki takes advantage of the tiny ''double-door chamber'' that isolates the door from the rest of his rooms (and restricts the impact of Asgard's atmosphere on his artificial Jotunheim) to hide all the scrolls scattered on his desk (and on the floor). He doesn't think that Thor would say anything about them (he won't probably even know what they are anyway), but they are supposed to be forbidden writings (in Loki's defense, he wasn't the one who ask for them, it was Odin who placed them on his library, not him).

Loki has just the time to hide the last scroll in a drawer (he didn't even know the desk had one in this place) before Thor enters the room.

"Well Thor? It's pretty late for a visit, don't you think ? What's going on ? Sleeping troubles ?"

Thor doesn't answer right away. Actually, he doesn't answer at all. He just stares at the floor, a crazed look fixed on a hollow face with bleach skin. He looks like he's going to drop dead the second after.

"Thor ?"

Outside, the rains starts to fall. The sound of each drop crashing on the window only increases the deafening silence inside the room.

"Thor ? Are you alright ?"

Loki still doesn't get an answer and he's starting to panic. Thor looks like a dead corpse just escaped from Helheim and even if he has honorable basis on Necromancy (the fact that he's not supposed to have them is not really important right now, is it ?), Loki is not sure he is ready to open a conflict with Hela, right here, right now.

A lightning tears the sky apart, immediately followed by a deafening thunder that shakes the very walls of the room. The noise is terrifying enough to allow Loki to come back to his practical sense. He crosses the room in three steps, grabs Thor by his cape, practically drags him to the bedside and makes him sit. Alright. A good thing done. If Thor really passes out, he won't make a 7-feet-height fall (he knows Thor has a stone-hard head so a fall shouldn't cause him too much damages, but with his personal luck, Loki prefers to be careful).

Thor doesn't offer any resistance. He is still as silent as a stone, eyes unfocused. Clearly, if his body is obviously here, the mind is not. Thor is like in a trance.

"Thor, if you keep trying to pass for a zombie and if you don't tell me what is happening in the next ten seconds, I swear I will send you in Hel, just to see if my daughter can untie your tongue better than me."

Loki counts mentally to ten. Slowly. Still nothing.

"Alright, as you wish! _Stjarna af uphiminn, kveykva ór nótt eða ór dagr…_"

"Father summoned me earlier."

Loki stops the incantation and the green glows that were beginning to whirl around his hands dissipate as quickly as they came. Thor speaks again. Good. Better than nothing. The world ''father'' awakes in him an old bitterness still not overcome despite all the years.

"Ah. And, what the…"

_Dotard, thief, liar, cheater, liar, liar, __**liar**__…_

"… All-father wanted from you at this hour ? Seeing your face, I assume it wasn't a pleasant meeting ?"

Thor obstinately refuses to meet his brother's eyes, but Loki is used to that now. And he almost doesn't care. Soon, he and Thor will be able to walk and talk freely, far from this frozen lair, and all this will be nothing but a campfire story. Right now, all he wants is Thor to carry on so he could know what bother him so and how he can help.

_The sooner Thunderhead is gone, the sooner you'll be able to resume your studies. _

"Thor."

Thor swallows and wets his lips.

"We spoke… we spoke about my next… birthday…"

There is a pause. A long pause. Just long enough for Loki to be sure he didn't imagine the words (that wouldn't be the first time). No, apparently, he didn't. So he punches Thor's shoulder with all his might.

"Imbecile ! You scared me, you oaf ! You and your devastated look ! I thought someone was dead, or the Kingdom was engaged in a war or… or Ragnarök had finally begun! But no! No, it was all about your birthday ! You blithering idiot ! Did you ever wonder why Odin gave you a hammer as weapon ?"

He punches again for good measure then goes to his library and pretends to look for a book in order to regain some composure and calm himself a little. When his anger doesn't make him think about murder and blood paints (Thor did suggest he had to do something manual and artistic, didn't he ?) anymore, he speaks again.

"So ? What was that serious for you to look like a Dwarf who lost all his gold? No honeyed boiled sheep head on the menu ? No, wait, let me guess. There is no mead anymore. That would be a real tragedy !"

"I will be crowned King of Asgard, Loki."

Outside, the thunder explodes.

Thor feels like the most miserable being in the whole Universe. Their Father always used to tell them that even if only one of them could ascend to the Throne, both of us were born to be Kings. Thor believed it. At first. But as the years passed, he realized that when a Council or a Negotiation with delegates from the other Worlds happened, it was Loki who Odin sought out. Whenever Thor assisted to one of those meeting, he almost systematically provoked a more or less major conflict.

"A wise King never seeks out war, but he must always be ready for it" used to say Odin. Loki was always prepared. He always had a plan for everything, when he sought battle before anything else. Loki always managed to solve every diplomatic problems Thor caused with his legendary harshness. Ah, yes, when a fight was inevitable, it is him that Odin calls, it is him toward Odin turns to assure Asgard victory. Just like a good soldier. Just like every other soldier in the Kingdom.

It is Loki who should ascend to the Throne. But he never will be able to, and it's Thor's fault. And now, after having stolen his brother's freedom, Thor just stole his Destiny. It is usually called a coup d'état. And usually, it's punished. Not rewarded.

"Oh, I see. So, that's what justifies all that drama? That's why you're so upset ? Sure, that's a little better than mead penury."

When Loki's voice resonates in the room, it totally takes Thor by surprise for it's absolutely no different from what it usually sounds. It sounds like every other day, when they discuss about banalities. And when Thor lifts his head and finally dares to looks at Loki, his brother's face doesn't show anger, or betrayal, or despair. Not even bitter resignation.

"Honestly Thor, if you get yourself into such a state, just because of such trivialities, you won't last very long, you know ?"

Loki laughs.

"Your reign would be the shortest ever ! That would be such a shame…" he adds.

Thor looks at him like Loki is morphing into something totally ludicrous. Loki casts a quick glance toward his mirror to check everything is in its right place before looking back at Thor.

"What is wrong this time ?"

Thor opens his mouth several times before his words finally find their way out.

"You… I thought you would be furious… with me ?"

Loki tilts his head on the side, genuinely intrigued.

_That's what I thought too._

"Furious with you ? Why ?"

"Because… Because I will be King."

_And not you._

"So what ?"

_It should have been you._

Thor bows his head again, shoulder heavy with shame.

"It should have been you, brother."

After a while, he carries on.

"You should have been the next King, and not me. You… you know how to use words. You are wise and skilled. You know everything there is to know, and you never let anyone fool you. I on the other hand…" Thor opens his hands and places them before his eyes. "I am a fool, an idiot. And don't you dare denying it. You say it all the time." He lets fall a dry chuckle and says "The Kingdom won't even last a century with me on its head."

Thor clutches his fists and lets his head hang low. Outside, the rain intensifies. Loki sighs, then slowly makes his way toward the bedside. He lets himself fall beside Thor.

_He is right. He __**is**__ stupid ! He will lead Asgard to her end !_

"We have a problem then. For it is you, the only one heir of Odin. I am not his son, remember ? Adopted."

_Stealed away. Like every other relics he stole from the other Realms. You're just kept in a different place than the Vault._

"You're right though. Left alone with Asgard's reins, you will make a huge hit. And I don't say that in a positive way."

Thor's shoulders slump a little more.

"But it appears that Asgard will hold more than a century, for you won't be left alone."

Thor jolts and raises his head to look at his brother. Loki bursts in laughter.

"What? You didn't thought Odin would bow out just like that, did you? It's not like he will drop dead the moment the crown is passed to you, you know?"

_Such a shame…_

"He will be here to guide your reign. Lucky you."

_It should have been you._

"And you will have counselors, ministers… Frigga…"

_Traitorous whore._

"They will help you too. Damn, that's their job after all."

_They are all liars ! Liars and incompetents ! If they'd put all their minds together they still wouldn't have the one-tenth of your wits ! _

"And, at worst, you will always have the possibility to come to me for some advices."

_He will be the King._

Loki offers Thor his most charming smile.

_And you, the Monster, what do you think they will do with you ?_

"Because that's also my job, a little. Isn't it ?"

_When Thor won't need you anymore ? What do you think they will do ?_

Loki lifts up his right sleeve, revealing the scar that runs to above his elbow. Then does the same with Thor's right wrist.

_I will tell you. When Thor won't need you anymore, he will forget you, like everyone else in Asgard did forgot you. You will stay here, locked up in your cage like an animal in some fair, while he, the Golden Son, will be adored by all._

"Because despite everything, we are still brother. You remember ?"

_And one day, Odin too will judge that you can't be of any used. And, he will end the spell that keeps you alive."_

Thor gazes at the scars, then at his brother. He still tends to see the mask of flesh instead of his face and his eyes are definitively too green, but all he sees in those unnatural eyes is honesty.

Loki expected the embrace, but its intensity still surprises him. He gladly returns it though, and traces soothing circles in Thor's back to appease his sobs. Oh Norns… how he missed those arms and their warmth…

_Do you understand now ?_

"It will be alright, Thor. You will be a good King. The best ever."

_Odin is not making Thor King in your place. _

* * *

"Thank you Loki" Thor whispers. "Thank you my brother."

_He is sentencing you to Death._

One week later, a maid trips on something and lets fall the basket of laundry she was carrying. Barely holding a colorful swearing, she crouches to gather up the clothes now soiled with mud, and, in her angry haste, her hand bumps into the thing that caused all this mess. Her hand comes back covered with a sticky brownish substance. When she realizes what it is and where it comes from, she screams in horror and runs away, forgetting her laundry on the mud.

On the ground lies the rotting carcass of a bird. A magpie.

Wings torn apart. Eviscerated.

The head is gone.

* * *

**There we are. The beginning of the end. RIP Mister magpie. Your suffering won't be for nothing. I'm sure it did some good on Loki (he needed to vent off some stress). It wasn't personal (erh… yes, yes it was…). By the way, let me precise that I'm absolutely not for animal torture (and I love magpies). -_-**

**Loki's invocation truly exists. Believe me or not, but it appears that Necromancy is a very serious science, with numerous followers. This formula is an extract of a spell supposed to send damned souls back to the world of dead. The whole thing (translated from French) is "Stars from Heaven, Lights of day and night, by your power free the soul unfairly bound here. Here is the request sent to you in this hour." Or something like that. I used a software to translate the first words in old Norse. I did my best, but I can't guaranty that the translation is exact. If someone knows about old Norse, his help and rectifications would be more than welcome ! ^o^**

**Well, another mask is in place. Maybe it's the worst one: duplicity. Loki will probably pass in "rebellion mode" (Thor, be careful ok? Loki is kind, but when you start hearing voices in your head, usually that's not so good…)**

**Speaking about voices, the ones who also read Checkmate probably recognized our friend (friend ?) the Voice. You know? The one who speaks in italics and tends to have some bad influence on Loki. A little wink I thought funny (it's not? Oh, all right….)**

**I hope you liked it ! ^o^**

**See you soon guys ! ^o^**


End file.
